Jawdat Said https://www.jawdatsaid.net/en/index.php/Main_Page MediaWiki 1.23.4 first-letter Media Special Talk User User talk Jawdat Said Jawdat Said talk File File talk MediaWiki MediaWiki talk Template Template talk Help Help talk Category Category talk 0 33 135 134 2009-08-23T10:38:46Z Admin 1 moved [[The present Arabic cultural scene]] to [[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 10: What is your reading of the present Arab cultural scene? What books or projects do you rate as interesting and not just repetitive?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 10: I am not pessimistic about the current intellectual Arab scene, despite the snail pace at which it develops. There is the shift from glorifying or condemning politicians to looking inside, and this is a step ahead. During the early days of the Palestinian crisis someone asked Amin al-Husaini, the mufti of the time, how he read the situation, and he answered: "Now it is for the sword to talk, so let the pen be silent." And the sword did talk; there have been noise, uproar, coups, wars, the exchange of accusations; the intellectual has in the meanwhile been silent or when he spoke, he spoke in inaudible whispers. All this has happened, and a stage has passed. But things are not like that now. After the Gulf wars, people no longer charge the politicians with the responsibility for what has happened; the intellectual is thinking along new lines – he now thinks of the social evolution. Before that, at the 1967 defeat, there were some voices, though too low, but it was a kind of proclamation, when they said that the defeat was not just military, but intellectual as well. So history is making its impact; culture is not confined to reformers like al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and their disciples; it is now a general phenomenon. There are now no charismatic figures that pose as heaven-guided, or the quintessence of change – it is rather a trend now. An example is the establishment of the Center for Arab Unity Studies, a non-political, non-governmental, organization: it is an intellectual organization that attracts thinkers and researchers; and it has published some noteworthy studies, and has held serious research seminars. Another distinguished organization is the International Institute of Islamic Thought. It certainly represents an advance, a good accomplishment. It now produces young enlightened researchers with good brains. Affiliated to it is also a college for Islamic-social studies, which trains scholars of both sexes. It keeps track of what is taking place in the Muslim world. No matter how slow these organizations are, and despite all their drawbacks, they are taking root, and gaining in resolution and confidence; and they are finding better response; two or three generations have now served them. On the other hand the audio-visual media and the T.V. channels now compete in stimulating thinkers and researchers to discuss interesting issues; people watch and hear with interest. It is indeed a splendid thing to observe how new ideas keep emerging as a result of the discussions. Competition is leading to variegating the topics and styles in political, social and economic affairs; and things are going apace, in presentation, direction, and reception. It would be an excellent thing if someone followed up all that, taking down the facts and making the necessary statistics to bring to our notice what developments are indicated by the statistics. The idea of democracy, though very little showing up in the discussions, is having some more roots. When so much is said about the other, when plurality of opinions and freedom of opinion are hailed, when these and associated topics are raised, they cannot but add up to something positive. Even censorship is not possible now in the old sense – the authorities have no hold on the spread of ideas, as information is being exchanged at faster and faster rate. Another thrilling aspect to watch is the increase of book fairs in all Arab metropolises, the wider circulations of publications, the exchange of visits of scholars and lecturers, the development of Arab art, and the ever more creative and ingenious serialized drama. I do realize how serious the gaps are in all the above; but things are picking speed, with sure steps: there is definitely no way back. One may conclude that things will come together and conglomerate to end up in real changes. And once communication and contacts are established among us, they will be unlikely to regress into older situations. And all these things happen without anybody's planning for them; it is circumstances that bring them about. It just is not possible for things to stay as they were, for the evolution is going at great speed. Of course there will be some who see nothing but repetitive, tedious events that are of no interest at all, even in the political arena. Here is an example of a seemingly minor thing. After a recent election in Algeria, one of the ministers declared: "It is true that we have lost the election, but we have won democracy." Of course we have not won democracy, but such statements are new, and they have their significance. Similarly, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, the Saudi minister of defense, declared recently in Washington that nations had their desires that could not long be ignored. These words are not just a repetition of old stuff, and they count. The point is that all such declarations indicate that development is taking place. One also hears a Jordanian politician say: "Why is it that if we listen to our people it is extremism and retrogression, while if they listen to their people it is a human value, and it indicates their progressiveness and marching upwards?" So it is not one or a few declarations like these, although they often get lost in the uproar and chaotic noise of indictments and counter indictments. The fact is that the Arab world, and the whole world are quite shaken as a result of the two Gulf wars; everyone has had to review their calculations, whether oppressors or oppressed. No one but has to adapt to history. You can see how nations are going through rebirth, on a global scale, in Africa, Asia, and South America; but like any delivery, this cannot happen without labor. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 134 57 2009-08-23T10:38:30Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 10: What is your reading of the present Arab cultural scene? What books or projects do you rate as interesting and not just repetitive?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 10: I am not pessimistic about the current intellectual Arab scene, despite the snail pace at which it develops. There is the shift from glorifying or condemning politicians to looking inside, and this is a step ahead. During the early days of the Palestinian crisis someone asked Amin al-Husaini, the mufti of the time, how he read the situation, and he answered: "Now it is for the sword to talk, so let the pen be silent." And the sword did talk; there have been noise, uproar, coups, wars, the exchange of accusations; the intellectual has in the meanwhile been silent or when he spoke, he spoke in inaudible whispers. All this has happened, and a stage has passed. But things are not like that now. After the Gulf wars, people no longer charge the politicians with the responsibility for what has happened; the intellectual is thinking along new lines – he now thinks of the social evolution. Before that, at the 1967 defeat, there were some voices, though too low, but it was a kind of proclamation, when they said that the defeat was not just military, but intellectual as well. So history is making its impact; culture is not confined to reformers like al-Afghani, Muhammad Abduh, and their disciples; it is now a general phenomenon. There are now no charismatic figures that pose as heaven-guided, or the quintessence of change – it is rather a trend now. An example is the establishment of the Center for Arab Unity Studies, a non-political, non-governmental, organization: it is an intellectual organization that attracts thinkers and researchers; and it has published some noteworthy studies, and has held serious research seminars. Another distinguished organization is the International Institute of Islamic Thought. It certainly represents an advance, a good accomplishment. It now produces young enlightened researchers with good brains. Affiliated to it is also a college for Islamic-social studies, which trains scholars of both sexes. It keeps track of what is taking place in the Muslim world. No matter how slow these organizations are, and despite all their drawbacks, they are taking root, and gaining in resolution and confidence; and they are finding better response; two or three generations have now served them. On the other hand the audio-visual media and the T.V. channels now compete in stimulating thinkers and researchers to discuss interesting issues; people watch and hear with interest. It is indeed a splendid thing to observe how new ideas keep emerging as a result of the discussions. Competition is leading to variegating the topics and styles in political, social and economic affairs; and things are going apace, in presentation, direction, and reception. It would be an excellent thing if someone followed up all that, taking down the facts and making the necessary statistics to bring to our notice what developments are indicated by the statistics. The idea of democracy, though very little showing up in the discussions, is having some more roots. When so much is said about the other, when plurality of opinions and freedom of opinion are hailed, when these and associated topics are raised, they cannot but add up to something positive. Even censorship is not possible now in the old sense – the authorities have no hold on the spread of ideas, as information is being exchanged at faster and faster rate. Another thrilling aspect to watch is the increase of book fairs in all Arab metropolises, the wider circulations of publications, the exchange of visits of scholars and lecturers, the development of Arab art, and the ever more creative and ingenious serialized drama. I do realize how serious the gaps are in all the above; but things are picking speed, with sure steps: there is definitely no way back. One may conclude that things will come together and conglomerate to end up in real changes. And once communication and contacts are established among us, they will be unlikely to regress into older situations. And all these things happen without anybody's planning for them; it is circumstances that bring them about. It just is not possible for things to stay as they were, for the evolution is going at great speed. Of course there will be some who see nothing but repetitive, tedious events that are of no interest at all, even in the political arena. Here is an example of a seemingly minor thing. After a recent election in Algeria, one of the ministers declared: "It is true that we have lost the election, but we have won democracy." Of course we have not won democracy, but such statements are new, and they have their significance. Similarly, Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, the Saudi minister of defense, declared recently in Washington that nations had their desires that could not long be ignored. These words are not just a repetition of old stuff, and they count. The point is that all such declarations indicate that development is taking place. One also hears a Jordanian politician say: "Why is it that if we listen to our people it is extremism and retrogression, while if they listen to their people it is a human value, and it indicates their progressiveness and marching upwards?" So it is not one or a few declarations like these, although they often get lost in the uproar and chaotic noise of indictments and counter indictments. The fact is that the Arab world, and the whole world are quite shaken as a result of the two Gulf wars; everyone has had to review their calculations, whether oppressors or oppressed. No one but has to adapt to history. You can see how nations are going through rebirth, on a global scale, in Africa, Asia, and South America; but like any delivery, this cannot happen without labor. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 57 2009-05-06T09:20:04Z Admin 1 Created page with '==How would you assess the present Arabic cultural scene?== ''' What names or approaches appeal to you, and seem to be not just a repetition of old doctrines?''' {{ Current Islam...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==How would you assess the present Arabic cultural scene?== ''' What names or approaches appeal to you, and seem to be not just a repetition of old doctrines?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} I am not pessimistic about the present Arabic cultural scene, although the change is quite slow. The Arabic cultural scene is beginning to steer away from glorifying or condemning the politicians to a critical analysis of ourselves. During the early days of the Palestinian crisis, the mufti Amin Al-Hussaini said to a journalist who asked about the solution: "When the sword talks, let the pen be silent." Well, the sword has talked: there have been noises, and chaos, and coups d'état, wars and exchanges of accusations; the intellectual's voice has been quite low or even unheard. But after the Gulf disaster people no longer lapped it on the politicians; the intellectual has started to think differently: he begins to think of the social revolution. Some people did actually say, after the 1967 defeat, though in a whisper, that our defeat was not only military, it was also cultural. This is something that people learn from history. It is true now that culture is no longer the monopoly of innovators, like Al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdoh, and their disciples – it is rather more generalized and diffused; we do not now expect charismatic leaders; it is rather a general direction. An example of this is the establishment of the Centre for the Studies of Arab Unity, a centre that was not established by politicians, nor does it belong to any state – it is just a cultural establishment devoted to studies, contributed by thinkers and researchers. This centre has done some fine work in the production of thought and analysis; and it holds some serious symposia. Anther establishment is the International Institute for Islamic Thought, which represents a healthy and well-guided effort. Some ingenious researches have been trained by this institute, and an affiliate of this institute is a college of Islamic social studies, where men and women are trained. Such organizations find some sure echoes in the Muslim World, slow but sure. Those organizations are functioning rather weakly, but they are taking root and increasing in strength and attracting more people. It is hoped that they will have a second and a third generation; they will also be in demand in the various channels of the mass media, for such channels compete in having competent thinkers and researchers debate topics of interest to the public. The public itself watches with eagerness, which is a very uplifting thing to see. The professional researchers will hopefully compete in handling the various political, social, and economic topics; indeed, things are accelerating and it is exhilarating to see that. There are of course many shortcomings, but there is reason to assert that there will be continuous improvement in understanding and performance. We find some people who begin to monitor all those changes, to collect data and make statistics, and that is certainly a heartening thing to see. And as for democracy, which is not as yet a common subject for discussion, it does take root in the minds of people: that is reflected in the frequent mention of the other's right, the multiplicity of perspectives, and the freedom of opinion. Such expressions and terms are beginning to proliferate and take shape, with their underlying concepts. There is movement in this; there is growth. It is no longer possible to prevent the ideas from spreading, for ideas have their inherent penetrative power, that no barriers can hinder their growth, and the exchange of information is on the increase day by day. It is a pleasure to watch all that; the book exhibitions in all Arab capitals are also a rejoice to all those concerned. So also is the exchange of publications, lecturers, and researchers and, we may add, the progress of Arab art, and television serialized plays, whose producers compete in being more genuine, creative and modern. It is true that there are serious drawbacks in all that, but things are improving all the time, with sure paces. Things are changing apace. It will not be long before we begin to reestablish the old contacts and harmony; it will soon be possible to say, after effective intercourse is established, that we are not going to fall apart any more. Things seem to be occurring even without words, which is the way circumstances necessitate; new and different relationships are a necessity now, and even when something is apparently repeated, it bears a new significance. That is because the rate of change in the world is so swift that it would not wait for the idle. Conventional repeated behaviours are no longer tolerated, even in the domain of politics. The new language is beginning to be heard, though in whispers at present. An example of this is a declaration by a certain Algerian minister who announced after the elections: "We have lost the elections, but won democracy;" and though it is not yet true that we have won democracy, such words are new and not just a repetition of older statements. That is creativity and development, and it promises a lot of good. And when Prince Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, the Saudi minister of defense, declares in Washington: "Nations have wishes that cannot be ignored any longer," he is not just repeating old clichés, nor is it without significance. It is development which is speaking in those declarations. Similarly, a Jordanian high-ranking official says: "Why is it that when we respond to our nation's wishes they count that extremism and regression, while if they respond to the wishes of their nations they count this as a human value, a progress and an advance towards ideals." Such declarations are so rare to hear, although they usually get lost among lots of noisy bedlam and the exchange of condemnations. The Arab World and the Muslim World cracked and had rifts as a result of the two Gulf wars; both the oppressed and the oppressors started to review their accounts. We shall have to adapt to the changes of history; and this phenomenon is a universal one, true anywhere in Africa or Asia or South America. The world is being born au nouveau, with all the agony and hopes that attend a new birth. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 34 138 137 2009-08-23T10:41:41Z Admin 1 moved [[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] to [[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 11: Professor Muhammad Arkoun insists that there is a need for a fresh theology for approaching Islam and religion in general, and emphasizes that this is still hardly touched upon. Arkoun mocks those who cite the Qur'an in the course of a debate – according to him, any such attempt would stir all the problems of moving from a mythical to a scientific age. So how would you rate this stance of Arkoun's?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 11: You puzzle me, Abdul-Jabbar! What occurred to you to ask me about Arkoun! I never had Arkoun feature prominently in my writings, nor is he high in my priorities. I admit of course that I read him intently; I worked hard to get to the deepest recesses of his mind, to fathom what he was after. The first time I came across his name was when I read an article in a UNESCO journal, Diogenes, entitled 'Islam and Development,' and I found that there was something about his writing which called for thought. He was different from Malek Bennabi – he in fact mocked him, and depicted his ideas and conceptions as void of any modernity. This did not put me out, as I knew that contemporaries were often incapable of doing justice to each other – his contempt for Bennabi detracted nothing of the latter's worth in my eyes. At the same time Arkoun is not talking nonsense; he is in fact intensely concerned about the welfare of Muslims. It now seems to me that Arkoun's insistence on a new theology could have been an incentive to me to think again about the concept of 'tawheed, unity of God' as being an econo-sociopolitical issue rather than a metaphysical one. It is not that this thinker said the above; but it was pressing on his mind; and I sensed the truthfulness and honesty of his endeavors. The way tawheed was handled by Muslim scholars did not do justice to the very high place assigned to tawheed and polytheism in the Qur'an. It was a central issue in the accounts about all prophets, but we somehow, most unaccountably, pass it by. That the Qur'an assigns so much importance to belief, disbelief and hypocrisy should have awakened us to the impact of such concepts on the life of a community. Not even today do we seem to appreciate this aspect, and that is what makes me say that what the prophets taught has not yet descended to the earth, that is, it has not yet taken its place in people's worldview. But it will come to be appreciated by and by; people will discover it as they have discovered the laws of matter, though they have not so far given enough time to the laws of man, nor have they learned how to activate his great potential. They certainly have not seen in man what Iqbal saw in him, an organ of the Divine will. This reminds me of a curious thing about Arkoun, that he never mentions Iqbal, not once (as far as I have seen, and I have read much, with all dedication, trying to get to the depth of his terminology and intellectual tools.) It honors Arkoun that he laid his hand on the necessity of a new theology; and by this I understand the necessity of correcting our conception of God. It is a mistake that we do not go to God's creation to know more about Him, and the Qur'an does warn that people may hold mistaken conceptions about God that will have harmful effect on their lives: "By this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost!" (41:23) "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154). What Muslims need is to know God through His laws, for at present Muslims do not possess a guiding light, after they have regressed to pre-Islamic ignorance. They have lost sight of the message of the prophets. What the prophets promulgated is, as far as I see it, a social revolution. This idea has so settled in my mind that it makes me appreciate their message as being worthy of the Almighty and All-knowing Lord; this has been His will, to guide His servants through the messengers He picked. But little do we know about God, and little do we know about the message of the prophets. But we shall rediscover their message – and when we do we shall be amazed to see how early in the human history did the prophets teach that which is worthy of attributing to the Creator of the universe. How difficult people find it to comprehend and accept the above fact is manifested in the Qur'an's reporting the people opposed to Prophet Muhammad as saying: "Has he made the gods all into one God? Truly this is a wonderful thing!" (38:5) One equally learns from the prophets, something that has been as difficult to accept as the above principle, that human beings are equal. How alien this has been to the minds of people is dramatically shown in Pharaoh's attitude to Moses' message, as reported in the Qur'an: "Am I not better than this Moses, who is a contemptible wretch and can scarcely express himself clearly?" (43:52) In another verse we have: "Similarly, no apostle came to the peoples before them, but they said of him, in like manner, 'a sorcerer, or one possessed!' " (51:52) That we have not got to the core of the prophets' message is not unlike when men for many centuries took the earth to be at the center with the sun orbiting it. As I see it, we should regard the social, political, and economic problems in light of three verses of the Qur'an: 1. "Say: … come to common terms as between us and you;" (3:64) at the social level; 2. "Serve God, and eschew the taghoot, i.e. the trespasser, the tyrant," (16:36) at the political level; and 3. "Seest thou one who denies the Judgment to come? Then such is the man who repulses the orphan with harshness, and encourages not the feeding of the indigent;" (107:1-3) at the economic level. One thing that Arkoun addressed in earnest is the mythical conception of people; People with the mythical conception think of God as not dealing with humankind on the basis of 'sunan, laws'; although God tells us in the Qur'an: "Are they but looking for the way the ancients were dealt with? But no change wilt thou find in God's way of dealing: no turning off wilt thou find in God's way of dealing;" (35:43). God has willed that laws should be consistent and constant. To the degree that man is ignorant of the laws of the world, he is dominated by the phenomena of the universe, and to the degree that he discovers the laws he dominates the phenomena of the universe. We of course like to think that we have rid ourselves of the dominance of wonders, but if we look well we shall discover that we still find our mind more contented with dealing with life on the basis of wonders, and not on the basis of 'sunan, laws', and that is why we are still afflicted with lots of catastrophes. But when Arkoun insists on separating religion from the state, he is contradicting himself and ruining his call for a new theology. Indeed, a new theology will turn religion into a science. He puts himself quite in a quandary when he clings to two incompatible principles. I will not go so far as to deny that Arkoun sincerely wished to find the common ground between science and religion. In his last book, A Window on Islam, one senses his coming closer to the necessity of setting a harmony between science and religion on a basis of sound knowledge. He quotes Habermas, the German philosopher, who stresses the need for reviving the covenant with God, as propounded by the prophets; says Habermas: "When someone raises a protest against treachery, he does that not just in his own name, but in the name of other humans. Every human is potentially an ally in the struggle against treachery, including the one who betrays himself. The principle of honesty is something that is incomprehensible without a comprehensive pact against treachery." While Arkoun urges us to follow the West in its separating religion from state, the prophets worked for a harmony between state and religion. This confusion and this separation, a reflection really of the Western way, do not give satisfaction even to Arkoun himself: that is why you find him at other times calling for a more careful study which establishes harmony between religion and state and between religion and politics. His stance is rather similar to that of uneducated Muslims, who have learned from experience that politics was based on treason and dishonesty, on opportunism and wrangling; while religion is based on honesty, uprightness, kindness and selflessness – that the two are just incompatible. The prophets, however, introduced politics that is characterized with honesty, uprightness and kindness; their truthful and honest policy subdued treacherous politics. This is what is lacking in the world now; politics stands for dishonesty, from the United Nations to the smallest Muslim state. It is this form of politics which the Prophet had in mind when he warned that people crave to be appointed in political positions, though a person so stationed will regret it on the Day of Judgment. In another tradition, the Prophet, peace be upon him, distinguishes between a person who does all he can to get a political job, and another who is urged to accept such position: the former, as the Prophet says, will be left to his means, while the latter will be provided with support from God. It seems at present that humankind is moving slowly towards honesty and equality, and towards adhering to non-violence, even when one has to uphold it unilaterally, should the other side decline to accept this attitude, but without any compromise concerning honesty. It is opting for the prophets' principle rather than the way of treachery. Arkoun is all for modernity; but modernity is undergoing an overhaul. It now reexamining its bases; hence the emergence of new trends like postmodernism. That Arkoun quotes Habermas, as shown above, is an indication that, as Jesus Christ had predicted, the Kingdom of God is coming. Actually, the social system cannot operate effectively and smoothly with dishonesty and privileges. A system that works on the basis of dishonesty and privileges will, before long, have cracks and begin to decay. We saw what happened in the two Gulf wars; and unless we regain the principle of equality (the word of common terms, in Qur'anic terms), the decadence will be worse and more severe. And this present situation of dishonesty cannot be put right with further dishonesty. Man has been created to find his contentment in nothing but uprightness, no matter how far men are lured by the devils. So our only hope is in spreading once again the message of the prophets; since there will be no more prophets, their task is now to be carried by those 'who teach just dealing with mankind' (the Qur'an, 3:21); it is for these to bear the heavy yoke, the trust which, as the Qur'an tells us (33:72,) was too heavy for the heavens, the earth, and the mountains; but it was borne by man. We should be sure that man, as hinted by God in His discourse with the angels (2:30,) will be able to rid himself of mischief and the spilling of blood. For man will discover, sooner or later, that any mischief he does, will backfire and it is he who will suffer from the results. If anyone is in doubt about how far man has advanced towards fulfilling God's plan for him, let him remember the cavemen and the men of today. Another thing about Arkoun, he is not as Muslims take him to be, a defector from Islam or a lackey of the West. Indeed, he is in the difficult position of having to fight on two fronts, confronting the orientalists on the one side, and his own people, the Muslims, on the other. He says for instance that it is a mistake to assert that Islam is different from Christianity in that Jesus Christ taught that you render to Caesar what is Caesar's and you render to God what is God's, while in Islam there is no diving line between the religious and the mundane. This, as Arkoun says, is just an illusion that resulted from inter-religion disputes. In brief, Arkoun has something to add, and it will not do to dismiss it in contempt. He actually puts us face to face with a new world. The principle to adopt in dealing with him is, as with anyone else, to apply the Qur'anic principle, to "accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). So let us be tolerant, especially with people like Arkoun, who has had to confront critics on all sides. Let us learn a lesson told by Abdul-Qaher al-Jailani concerning a controversial mystic: "Al-Hallaj did slipped, for there was no one at his time to show him the right way; but I am here to show the way to whoever slips." I hope that we can learn from this. When Arkoun says that any person who quote the Qur'an to prove a point is really raising all the problems of traversing from the age of wonders to the scientific age, this assertion of his is not without a real justification. Indeed, even Ali bin Abu Taleb had to warn people that when one quotes the Qur'an he has to bear in mind that the Qur'anic discourse has multiple meanings. When God sends down a Sign, as He says in the Qur'an (2:26) 'by it he causes many to stray, and many he leads into the right path.' Therefore, the Qur'an, just as a book, is not enough for guidance. This is the simple fact. It is the Qur'an itself that tells us what to refer to to understand it: the signs of the world around us, and within our souls. The facts of the world will put right our understanding of the Qur'an. Otherwise, the Qur'an will be there for every party to find in it what it likes. Is it not the less truthful party, the opponents of Ali, who held the Qur'an, stuck and raised high on the tip of spears? From that time until today, we are using verses of the Qur'an to spite our adversaries. But you will often find a truthful piece of Islamic writing without one verse of the Qur'an, without one tradition of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and perhaps without one quotation from the great scholars of the past. A writer may be more convincing by citing the realities of history and modern or old events. The Qur'an itself does not address us by uttering its verses; it is invariably quoted by men, and men can quote it rightly or wrongly. Let me remind you here of the Messenger's, peace be upon him, saying that the Jews and Christians, have the Scriptures in their hands, but benefit nothing by their truths. And this is exactly true of us. But things will not be as they are for long. We shall learn to be guided by the Qur'an, having for reference the signs of the world around us and the inner world of our souls. When Muslims do that, they will put a stop to their misinterpretations and misquotations. Let me wind up with Arkoun's last words in his book, A Critique of the Arab-Muslim Mind: "It is right to conclude our search with something deeper, to help us understand the great potency of the Qur'anic phenomenon, potency that went on unabated over the centuries… It is there, though we are unable at the moment to lay our hands on its particular place in the Qur'an itself; the same as it is with the words of Jesus Christ … the fact remains that there is that immense power of the Qur'an which gave birth the Qur'anic phenomenon, in a particular place, and not anywhere else: these are vital questions that are waiting for our answer, and our answer must be different from the orientalists'… We call for the establishment of a new science, broader than what we find in the field; and when I campaign for this, I feel that it contributes actively to a rejuvenation of human sciences, through the Islamic model. This new discipline, which I suggest to be called 'applied Islamics', I am dedicated to see established and launched." Again I am not quite sure that I have given a satisfactory evaluation of Arkoun. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 137 58 2009-08-23T10:40:55Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 11: Professor Muhammad Arkoun insists that there is a need for a fresh theology for approaching Islam and religion in general, and emphasizes that this is still hardly touched upon. Arkoun mocks those who cite the Qur'an in the course of a debate – according to him, any such attempt would stir all the problems of moving from a mythical to a scientific age. So how would you rate this stance of Arkoun's?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 11: You puzzle me, Abdul-Jabbar! What occurred to you to ask me about Arkoun! I never had Arkoun feature prominently in my writings, nor is he high in my priorities. I admit of course that I read him intently; I worked hard to get to the deepest recesses of his mind, to fathom what he was after. The first time I came across his name was when I read an article in a UNESCO journal, Diogenes, entitled 'Islam and Development,' and I found that there was something about his writing which called for thought. He was different from Malek Bennabi – he in fact mocked him, and depicted his ideas and conceptions as void of any modernity. This did not put me out, as I knew that contemporaries were often incapable of doing justice to each other – his contempt for Bennabi detracted nothing of the latter's worth in my eyes. At the same time Arkoun is not talking nonsense; he is in fact intensely concerned about the welfare of Muslims. It now seems to me that Arkoun's insistence on a new theology could have been an incentive to me to think again about the concept of 'tawheed, unity of God' as being an econo-sociopolitical issue rather than a metaphysical one. It is not that this thinker said the above; but it was pressing on his mind; and I sensed the truthfulness and honesty of his endeavors. The way tawheed was handled by Muslim scholars did not do justice to the very high place assigned to tawheed and polytheism in the Qur'an. It was a central issue in the accounts about all prophets, but we somehow, most unaccountably, pass it by. That the Qur'an assigns so much importance to belief, disbelief and hypocrisy should have awakened us to the impact of such concepts on the life of a community. Not even today do we seem to appreciate this aspect, and that is what makes me say that what the prophets taught has not yet descended to the earth, that is, it has not yet taken its place in people's worldview. But it will come to be appreciated by and by; people will discover it as they have discovered the laws of matter, though they have not so far given enough time to the laws of man, nor have they learned how to activate his great potential. They certainly have not seen in man what Iqbal saw in him, an organ of the Divine will. This reminds me of a curious thing about Arkoun, that he never mentions Iqbal, not once (as far as I have seen, and I have read much, with all dedication, trying to get to the depth of his terminology and intellectual tools.) It honors Arkoun that he laid his hand on the necessity of a new theology; and by this I understand the necessity of correcting our conception of God. It is a mistake that we do not go to God's creation to know more about Him, and the Qur'an does warn that people may hold mistaken conceptions about God that will have harmful effect on their lives: "By this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost!" (41:23) "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154). What Muslims need is to know God through His laws, for at present Muslims do not possess a guiding light, after they have regressed to pre-Islamic ignorance. They have lost sight of the message of the prophets. What the prophets promulgated is, as far as I see it, a social revolution. This idea has so settled in my mind that it makes me appreciate their message as being worthy of the Almighty and All-knowing Lord; this has been His will, to guide His servants through the messengers He picked. But little do we know about God, and little do we know about the message of the prophets. But we shall rediscover their message – and when we do we shall be amazed to see how early in the human history did the prophets teach that which is worthy of attributing to the Creator of the universe. How difficult people find it to comprehend and accept the above fact is manifested in the Qur'an's reporting the people opposed to Prophet Muhammad as saying: "Has he made the gods all into one God? Truly this is a wonderful thing!" (38:5) One equally learns from the prophets, something that has been as difficult to accept as the above principle, that human beings are equal. How alien this has been to the minds of people is dramatically shown in Pharaoh's attitude to Moses' message, as reported in the Qur'an: "Am I not better than this Moses, who is a contemptible wretch and can scarcely express himself clearly?" (43:52) In another verse we have: "Similarly, no apostle came to the peoples before them, but they said of him, in like manner, 'a sorcerer, or one possessed!' " (51:52) That we have not got to the core of the prophets' message is not unlike when men for many centuries took the earth to be at the center with the sun orbiting it. As I see it, we should regard the social, political, and economic problems in light of three verses of the Qur'an: 1. "Say: … come to common terms as between us and you;" (3:64) at the social level; 2. "Serve God, and eschew the taghoot, i.e. the trespasser, the tyrant," (16:36) at the political level; and 3. "Seest thou one who denies the Judgment to come? Then such is the man who repulses the orphan with harshness, and encourages not the feeding of the indigent;" (107:1-3) at the economic level. One thing that Arkoun addressed in earnest is the mythical conception of people; People with the mythical conception think of God as not dealing with humankind on the basis of 'sunan, laws'; although God tells us in the Qur'an: "Are they but looking for the way the ancients were dealt with? But no change wilt thou find in God's way of dealing: no turning off wilt thou find in God's way of dealing;" (35:43). God has willed that laws should be consistent and constant. To the degree that man is ignorant of the laws of the world, he is dominated by the phenomena of the universe, and to the degree that he discovers the laws he dominates the phenomena of the universe. We of course like to think that we have rid ourselves of the dominance of wonders, but if we look well we shall discover that we still find our mind more contented with dealing with life on the basis of wonders, and not on the basis of 'sunan, laws', and that is why we are still afflicted with lots of catastrophes. But when Arkoun insists on separating religion from the state, he is contradicting himself and ruining his call for a new theology. Indeed, a new theology will turn religion into a science. He puts himself quite in a quandary when he clings to two incompatible principles. I will not go so far as to deny that Arkoun sincerely wished to find the common ground between science and religion. In his last book, A Window on Islam, one senses his coming closer to the necessity of setting a harmony between science and religion on a basis of sound knowledge. He quotes Habermas, the German philosopher, who stresses the need for reviving the covenant with God, as propounded by the prophets; says Habermas: "When someone raises a protest against treachery, he does that not just in his own name, but in the name of other humans. Every human is potentially an ally in the struggle against treachery, including the one who betrays himself. The principle of honesty is something that is incomprehensible without a comprehensive pact against treachery." While Arkoun urges us to follow the West in its separating religion from state, the prophets worked for a harmony between state and religion. This confusion and this separation, a reflection really of the Western way, do not give satisfaction even to Arkoun himself: that is why you find him at other times calling for a more careful study which establishes harmony between religion and state and between religion and politics. His stance is rather similar to that of uneducated Muslims, who have learned from experience that politics was based on treason and dishonesty, on opportunism and wrangling; while religion is based on honesty, uprightness, kindness and selflessness – that the two are just incompatible. The prophets, however, introduced politics that is characterized with honesty, uprightness and kindness; their truthful and honest policy subdued treacherous politics. This is what is lacking in the world now; politics stands for dishonesty, from the United Nations to the smallest Muslim state. It is this form of politics which the Prophet had in mind when he warned that people crave to be appointed in political positions, though a person so stationed will regret it on the Day of Judgment. In another tradition, the Prophet, peace be upon him, distinguishes between a person who does all he can to get a political job, and another who is urged to accept such position: the former, as the Prophet says, will be left to his means, while the latter will be provided with support from God. It seems at present that humankind is moving slowly towards honesty and equality, and towards adhering to non-violence, even when one has to uphold it unilaterally, should the other side decline to accept this attitude, but without any compromise concerning honesty. It is opting for the prophets' principle rather than the way of treachery. Arkoun is all for modernity; but modernity is undergoing an overhaul. It now reexamining its bases; hence the emergence of new trends like postmodernism. That Arkoun quotes Habermas, as shown above, is an indication that, as Jesus Christ had predicted, the Kingdom of God is coming. Actually, the social system cannot operate effectively and smoothly with dishonesty and privileges. A system that works on the basis of dishonesty and privileges will, before long, have cracks and begin to decay. We saw what happened in the two Gulf wars; and unless we regain the principle of equality (the word of common terms, in Qur'anic terms), the decadence will be worse and more severe. And this present situation of dishonesty cannot be put right with further dishonesty. Man has been created to find his contentment in nothing but uprightness, no matter how far men are lured by the devils. So our only hope is in spreading once again the message of the prophets; since there will be no more prophets, their task is now to be carried by those 'who teach just dealing with mankind' (the Qur'an, 3:21); it is for these to bear the heavy yoke, the trust which, as the Qur'an tells us (33:72,) was too heavy for the heavens, the earth, and the mountains; but it was borne by man. We should be sure that man, as hinted by God in His discourse with the angels (2:30,) will be able to rid himself of mischief and the spilling of blood. For man will discover, sooner or later, that any mischief he does, will backfire and it is he who will suffer from the results. If anyone is in doubt about how far man has advanced towards fulfilling God's plan for him, let him remember the cavemen and the men of today. Another thing about Arkoun, he is not as Muslims take him to be, a defector from Islam or a lackey of the West. Indeed, he is in the difficult position of having to fight on two fronts, confronting the orientalists on the one side, and his own people, the Muslims, on the other. He says for instance that it is a mistake to assert that Islam is different from Christianity in that Jesus Christ taught that you render to Caesar what is Caesar's and you render to God what is God's, while in Islam there is no diving line between the religious and the mundane. This, as Arkoun says, is just an illusion that resulted from inter-religion disputes. In brief, Arkoun has something to add, and it will not do to dismiss it in contempt. He actually puts us face to face with a new world. The principle to adopt in dealing with him is, as with anyone else, to apply the Qur'anic principle, to "accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). So let us be tolerant, especially with people like Arkoun, who has had to confront critics on all sides. Let us learn a lesson told by Abdul-Qaher al-Jailani concerning a controversial mystic: "Al-Hallaj did slipped, for there was no one at his time to show him the right way; but I am here to show the way to whoever slips." I hope that we can learn from this. When Arkoun says that any person who quote the Qur'an to prove a point is really raising all the problems of traversing from the age of wonders to the scientific age, this assertion of his is not without a real justification. Indeed, even Ali bin Abu Taleb had to warn people that when one quotes the Qur'an he has to bear in mind that the Qur'anic discourse has multiple meanings. When God sends down a Sign, as He says in the Qur'an (2:26) 'by it he causes many to stray, and many he leads into the right path.' Therefore, the Qur'an, just as a book, is not enough for guidance. This is the simple fact. It is the Qur'an itself that tells us what to refer to to understand it: the signs of the world around us, and within our souls. The facts of the world will put right our understanding of the Qur'an. Otherwise, the Qur'an will be there for every party to find in it what it likes. Is it not the less truthful party, the opponents of Ali, who held the Qur'an, stuck and raised high on the tip of spears? From that time until today, we are using verses of the Qur'an to spite our adversaries. But you will often find a truthful piece of Islamic writing without one verse of the Qur'an, without one tradition of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and perhaps without one quotation from the great scholars of the past. A writer may be more convincing by citing the realities of history and modern or old events. The Qur'an itself does not address us by uttering its verses; it is invariably quoted by men, and men can quote it rightly or wrongly. Let me remind you here of the Messenger's, peace be upon him, saying that the Jews and Christians, have the Scriptures in their hands, but benefit nothing by their truths. And this is exactly true of us. But things will not be as they are for long. We shall learn to be guided by the Qur'an, having for reference the signs of the world around us and the inner world of our souls. When Muslims do that, they will put a stop to their misinterpretations and misquotations. Let me wind up with Arkoun's last words in his book, A Critique of the Arab-Muslim Mind: "It is right to conclude our search with something deeper, to help us understand the great potency of the Qur'anic phenomenon, potency that went on unabated over the centuries… It is there, though we are unable at the moment to lay our hands on its particular place in the Qur'an itself; the same as it is with the words of Jesus Christ … the fact remains that there is that immense power of the Qur'an which gave birth the Qur'anic phenomenon, in a particular place, and not anywhere else: these are vital questions that are waiting for our answer, and our answer must be different from the orientalists'… We call for the establishment of a new science, broader than what we find in the field; and when I campaign for this, I feel that it contributes actively to a rejuvenation of human sciences, through the Islamic model. This new discipline, which I suggest to be called 'applied Islamics', I am dedicated to see established and launched." Again I am not quite sure that I have given a satisfactory evaluation of Arkoun. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 58 2009-05-06T09:21:48Z Admin 1 Created page with '==Professor Muhammad Arkoun keeps harping on the need for a new theology in general, and particularly for Islam...== '''..adding though that this call of his breaks new ice; Prof...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==Professor Muhammad Arkoun keeps harping on the need for a new theology in general, and particularly for Islam...== '''..adding though that this call of his breaks new ice; Professor Arkoun ridicules those who quote the Qur'an in the course of a debate, on the grounds that, "such practice raises the whole range of problems of moving from the mythological to the scientific age." So how would you evaluate this attitude?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} I wonder, Mr. Al-Rifa'ee, what makes you choose Muhammad Arkoun to be the subject-matter of one of your questions: I have not brought up the name of Muhammad Arkoun that frequently in my writings, nor do I count him as one of my major priorities, although I have read him carefully and attentively, for I was intent on making out what went on in the mind of that man. The first time I came across his work was when I read an article he had contributed to Diogenes, a journal published by the UNESCO, entitled, "Islam versus development," and I noticed that his writing deserved contemplation. He is not of Malik bin Nabi's type – he rather ridiculed bin Nabi, and considered that he was not acquainted with modernism: but there is no harm in this, for contemporaries seldom appreciate each other – his denigration of bin Nabi did not detract of the latter's value in my mind. Muhammad Arkoun, however, is not to be ignored; he cares for the Muslims. It is likely that Arkoun's insistence on a new theology for Muslims led me to move ahead in understanding the issue of tawheed 'Oneness of God', not on the basis of theology, but as a social, political and economic issue. Not that he said any word on the topic, but the need for a new theology in Islam, as an objective, has remained a major concern of his; and I felt his insistence to be honest and well-taken. Theology as handled by mainstream Muslim scholars is not in line with the way tawheed 'Oneness of God' is presented in the Qur'an; it does not at all give justice to the supreme place reserved for that in the Qur'an. It is such a fundamental topic, and so pivotal in the story of any prophet, that it is amazing how little effort we have devoted to it. The topics of belief and hypocrisy occupy a central place in the Qur'an, and yet we do not understand their effects on the life of societies – indeed they have not been investigated with any earnestness. It is that what makes me say that what God revealed to the prophets has not yet descended to the earth; it is not yet part of people's consciousness; but it will in the future: people will discover that. Men have discovered the laws of the material world, but they know so little about the laws of man – they do not realize what brings out the amazing potential powers of that unique creature, a creature that can annihilate himself if he does not find the way to self-realization. It is the creature who is capable of being an arm of Divine Will, as Muhammad Iqbal puts it. (By the way, it is puzzling why Muhammad Arkoun never mentioned Muhammad Iqbal in any of his writings that I have read, and I do not claim to have read all that he wrote.) What I did read of his writings I read with attentive concentration and devotion – I was intent on getting the gist of his terminology and conceptual tools. It does him honour that he has laid his hand on the idea of the need for a new theology, and to me it is the need for putting right our concept of God. It is a mistake that we do not try to understand God through a study of His creation and the history of creation – it is to that that the Qur'an is referring in the following verse: "But this thought of yours which you entertained concerning your Lord, has brought you to destruction, and now you have become utterly lost! (41, 23)," and "[they cherish] wrong suspicions of Allah – suspicions due to Ignorance, (3, 154)." Coming to know God through His laws is the way that Muslims are yet to realize: after they lost uprightness (al-rushd in Arabic), the Muslims regressed to pre-Islamic concepts, and they lost the legacy of the prophets. What the prophets taught was, as I see it, a social revolution. This is a concept that caught my attention in no little degree; it drove me to better appreciate the message that the prophets taught, a message worthy of being attributed to God, the Able, the High, Who willed to condescend and guide His creatures on the tongue of His prophets. But we have not understood God, nor do we understand the prophets' message – but we shall rediscover it, and it is then than we shall see that what the prophets taught long ago is worthy of the Maker of the Worlds. To capture that message proves to be still hard for mankind, and that is manifest in their idolatry at the widest scale, and their failure to appreciate tawheed, which is utterly absent from their minds. When the Qur'an reports on the tongue of the Ignorant 'the unbelieving group of Mecca': "Has he [Muhammad] made the gods all into one God (Allah)? Truly this is a wonderful thing! (38, 5)," their attitude is not that different from our failure to establish equality among all people. Similar attitudes are registered by the Qur'an: "Am I [Pharaoh] not better than this Moses, who is a contemptible wretch and can scarcely express himself clearly? (43, 52);" and similarly, “No Messenger came to the Peoples before them, but they said of him in like manner, "A sorcerer, or one possessed! (51, 52)”. But we have not even touched on what the prophets have taught, I mean the social revolution and the great sorcery in the social life – sorcery that is as untrue as when men for long ages thought that the sun rotated around us, although it is quite the opposite. The socio-politico-economic problem should be here discussed in the light of three Qur'anic texts: 1. Come to common terms as between us and you (3, 64) – the social problem; 2. Serve God and eschew the taghoot 'evil, dictatorship, etc.' (16, 36) – the political problem; 3. Do you see one who denies the Judgment to come? Then such is the man who repulses the orphans with harshness, and does not encourage the feeding of the indigent, (107, 1-3) – the economic problem. Some social writers have said that Marx exposed the economic exploitations, but his endeavour did not really go far enough: there is a need to dissect that aspect, and to breathe life into it until it starts to have an active part in life. One of the things that Arkoun gave a prime importance to is people's mythical imagination, and I like to call it miraculous conception. According to the mythical imagination, people think the world God created is not governed by laws, although we read in the Qur'an: "But no change will you find in Allah's laws (or ways) of dealing: no turning off will you find in Allah's laws of dealing (35, 42)." The laws are characterized by constancy; the universe is at man's service, and man has the ability to discover the laws and have control in the universe. But it is not enough to assure ourselves that we have gone beyond thinking on the basis of miracles; we need to dig in deeper, and we shall find that it still makes us feel most in familiar circumstances when we think of God's creation as based on miracles and not on laws – and it is that way of viewing things that brings on us all the disasters. Arkoun also stresses again and again the need for separating religion and state, but that call of his destroys and runs counter to his call for a new theology, since a new theology is one that makes of religion a science – and yet he insists that religion must be separated from state. He cannot get over his confusion there. I don't, however, go so far as to say he does not have a nostalgic wish to reconcile science with religion – in his latest book, A Window on Islam, Arkoun has gone further than ever in trying to harmonize religion and science, drawing on fresh findings. He quotes there from Habermas, the German thinker, who stressed the need for a revival of the 'Covenant with God' which was put forth by the prophets – In this Covenant, as Habermas puts it: "When an individual protests against treachery, he is not protesting solely in his name, but in the name of everybody. Every human being is potentially a supporter of the struggle against treachery, even against himself or against me. The principle of honesty is unthinkable without a thorough and comprehensive compact against treachery." Arkoun is importuning us to separate religion and state, in the Western fashion, but what the prophets advocated was coordinating religion with the state. The confusion and disunity in Arkoun's thinking, which really reflects the bases of the Western society, is what he is calling on us to follow – despite the fact that he himself does not show satisfaction with that system; he advocates a new approach to knowledge which encompasses both religion and state, religion and politics. It is true too of the Muslim masses that they have absorbed the separation of religion from politics, on the grounds that politics is based on treachery, betrayal, opportunism and haggling, while religion is honesty, truthfulness, kindness and altruism: they are utterly incompatible in people's minds. But what the prophets did was to turn politics into an honest, truthful and charitable relationship. Their truthful authority was extended to supersede treacherous politics: something that the present world badly needs, from the United Nations to the tiniest Muslim state – how to turn politics into an honest and truthful endeavour. It is in the light of this that we can understand the Messenger's tradition about assuming positions of authority, when he said: "You will be keen on securing it, and yet it will be something to regret and repent on the Day of Judgment. It is a felicity when assumed, and wretchedness in the end;" and when he said: "Those who ask to be appointed to a position of authority will be denied that wish, and those who are keen on securing it and do get appointed will be left to their own means; but those who are urgently pressed to be appointed will be assisted by God." In brief, mankind is progressing, though very slowly, towards honesty, towards impartiality and towards adopting ideals unilaterally – that no one is allowed to convince you to abandon what you know to be true to his own doctrine, from the way of uprightness to the way of treachery. This very point has always been the cut-off line between the prophets and their peoples: the domain of honesty and the domain of treachery. Modernism now begins to revise itself under new movements, like postmodernism, and the words of Habermas. Arkoun's citing such new terms, and his enthusiasm in that respect, show that a new world is looming in the horizon, and that is what Jesus predicted. The social structure cannot function smoothly with treachery and privileges: That structure which is now rotting with treachery and privileges will not last long – it will crack and split as happened in the aftermath of the two Gulf wars. Unless we revert to the word of even-handedness and common terms (ref. to the Qur'an, 3, 64) the rift will be more severe and painful. The world which has already split will not heal with more treachery and disregard of the Covenant which God has inscribed in the hearts of His servants, though they have been led astray by the devils. We are now living in a new and amazing time: we need to scream and shout with both the good news and the warning, after the example of prophets. There will be no more prophets, but there are men who teach just dealing with mankind (ref. to the Qur'an, 3, 31,) and worshippers of God, the Cherisher of all creation: it is those who must bear the burden of the heavy Trust, the Trust which the heavens, the land, and the mountains would not undertake, but man did accept to undertake (ref. to the Qur'an, 33, 72,) for man will be true to God's foretelling concerning him (ref. to the Qur'an, 2, 30;) that he will get over mischief and the spilling of blood, will find out that his injustice was really against himself: "O mankind! Your injustice is against your own souls (the Qur'an, 10, 23.) When we think back to man in the cave, we shall know that what God expected for man will come true. Muhammad Arkoun is not the man Muslims take him to be: an apostate who is in the clutches of the West. He is struggling on both fronts, the front of Arabs and Muslims, and the front of orientalists. The new additions that Arkoun brought to our notice should not be underestimated – and he did foretell of a new world. Indeed, our constant attitude should be that we accept from people the best that they can offer, and pass by their shortcomings – indeed who among us is not without shortcomings! We really need to give people the credit for their efforts, and should not ignore what they stood by and endured all the hardships for. Let our example be Abdul-Qader Al-Jailani who said: "When Al-Hallaj stumbled there was no one in his age who would stretch his hand to help him; but I am ready to take the hand of whoever stumbles." Such an attitude is what we need in order to gather people round the supreme ideal, so let's give it some thought. Now as for Arkoun's saying that a person who cites the Qur'an in support of his stand is provoking the whole range of problems attending the traversing from the mythical age to the scientific age, I find this statement to denote no little degree of truth – it is not very different from what Ali, may God bless his person, once said: "The Qur'an is open to all kinds of interpretation." Indeed, there is no discourse but is open to various interpretations. Had it not been for reference to the actual world, words would not have meaning; and the Qur'an, as it itself says: "By it He causes many to stray, and many He leads into the right path, (2, 26)." And so the Qur'an, as a Book, is not sufficient to lead to the right path. That throws the truth into focus; to be a guidance, the Qur'an requires a referent, the signs of the world around us and the world of the souls inside us: it is that which will put right our understanding of the Qur'an. Without that process of referring to the signs, the Qur'an will be held up as supporting any side and all sides, and you may recall how the Qur'an was raised on the spears in the Mu'awiah-Ali dispute. In this incident, it was not the side nearer truth or honesty who called the others to refer to the Qur'an for seeking solution. And down to our own day we still compete in citing the Qur'an and other texts. I may refer here to an article written by Sayyed Hussein Fadhl-Allah about Islamic unity, in which he does not quote a single verse from the Qur'an, nor one tradition of the Prophet's or any statement by the ancestors – on the other hand he mentions the real state of affairs more than seventy times. About that article, I myself wrote an article which was published by the Iranian Commission in Damascus. Indeed the Qur'an does not utter anything by itself: it is there for people to make it utter. The Prophet did mention a situation in which people can no longer benefit from their scripture, though revealed by God; he reminded that the Jews and the Christian do have in their hands books revealed from God, but they do not benefit anything from them. This is true of us, too. But we hope that in the future we shall be able to benefit from the Book of God, and that will be by referring to God's signs in the world around and the world within. Once this is realized, people will no longer twist the text to suit their interpretations – they will accept with fullest conviction. At the end of his book, Criticism of the Arab-Islamic Mind, Arkoun includes a chapter entitled: An epilogue about the potency of the Qur'anic phenomenon, in which he says: “It remains to review something deeper than what we have done so far, something that can help us fathom the secret of the power of that phenomenon across centuries .. it is there, existing though we are unable to locate it specifically, it is somewhere in the Qur'an and in the words of Jesus .. How was it possible for this power to bring forth the marvelous phenomenon, the Qur'an, which burst here and no where else? This is the massive, provocative question which awaits to be answered. But our answer must not be the same as put forth by the orientalists .. I, for my part, am in favour of a different, wider research which will give justice to this issue, and if we undertake such inquiry we shall have contributed something substantial in pushing ahead and reviving the human sciences through the Islamic specimen, I mean by launching applied Islamicism, which I have most fervently struggled to see it established.” Again I must wonder if I have given justice to Arkoun's work. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 35 147 140 2009-08-23T11:03:31Z Admin 1 moved [[Interpretation of the holy texts]] to [[12: Interpretation of the holy texts]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 12: What do you think of the modern trends concerning sacred texts [the Qur'an and the Prophet's traditions], according to which any attempt to arrive at truth through examining a text must bring up all the multiplicity of readings: in the sense that no general truth can really be gleaned from a text; that even the attempts at legislation on the basis of texts, and through analyzing texts, is bound to be elusive and illusive, no matter how ardently its adherents claim to be sincere and objective. Is not such position tantamount to assuming that the truth of the sacred text itself is relative, or even nonexistent?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 12: As you see, Abdul-Jabbar, wherever we turn, we are invariably brought back to how to deal with the text. The text is a series of symbols, vocal and light symbols to which we assign certain significance. While without the symbols we cannot retain any experience we come by, without the experience the text becomes worthless. It is so because the text is just a vehicle of sense; there is a reciprocal relation between text and sense: no experience can be conveyed from one mind to another without the text. I know I repeat this and keep repeating it; I keep reminding those who cling solely to the text: It is the Author of the text itself Who says refer to the facts of the world. You cannot get to the heart of meaning with the text alone. I may repeat an example that illustrates how our knowledge of the world conditions our understanding of the Qur'an. The two words, 'the sky' and 'the earth' are frequently used in the Qur'an, but what occurs to our mind when we come across 'sky' and 'earth' is not what occurred to the mind to the first audience of the Qur'an. This teaches us to always refer to the basic place, the real world in which we live. This is pointed to by both science and by God. Indeed, even the ancient Arabs used to say the moon is the moon; it is we who have different concepts of it. I may add here that when you hear or read the word 'fire' it does not burn your hand; it is just a symbol, a symbol that we utter. If we can comprehend this and digest it well, it will give us peace and comfort. We can tell anybody who makes any claim: If the signs of the world around us or the inner world of our souls testifies in your favor, then what you say is accepted, for the time being – until something emerges that is nearer to matching with the facts of the real world. It is as the Qur'an challenges a certain people who assert that they will neither believe in the present Scripture, nor in what was revealed to Moses: "Then bring ye a Book from God, which is a better guide than either of them, that I may follow it! Do, if ye are truthful:" (28:49). The idea of a pair (here the text and the real world) is a basic one in life, as the Qur'an tells us: "And of every thing We have created pairs, that ye may receive instruction;" (51:49). There is no proliferation in life without pairs. That is something that we can readily comprehend. But the Lord establishes the same connection between the text and the real world: "Then, by the Lord of heavens and earth, this is the very truth, as much as the fact that ye can speak intelligently to each other;" (51:23). It helps to analyze how we speak, what happens when we utter words; to remember the participants in the process of speaking: the speaker, the hearer, the topic, the words that express the sense, the vehicle of the sense, without which nothing can be conveyed. It must be clear to us that no sense may be conveyed without reference to reality. The classical example is always the sun, when men accepted for numberless centuries the illusion about its going round us, until the facts became known to them. Praise be to God Jawdat Sa'eed. 3 March, 1998 [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 140 62 2009-08-23T10:42:43Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 12: What do you think of the modern trends concerning sacred texts [the Qur'an and the Prophet's traditions], according to which any attempt to arrive at truth through examining a text must bring up all the multiplicity of readings: in the sense that no general truth can really be gleaned from a text; that even the attempts at legislation on the basis of texts, and through analyzing texts, is bound to be elusive and illusive, no matter how ardently its adherents claim to be sincere and objective. Is not such position tantamount to assuming that the truth of the sacred text itself is relative, or even nonexistent?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 12: As you see, Abdul-Jabbar, wherever we turn, we are invariably brought back to how to deal with the text. The text is a series of symbols, vocal and light symbols to which we assign certain significance. While without the symbols we cannot retain any experience we come by, without the experience the text becomes worthless. It is so because the text is just a vehicle of sense; there is a reciprocal relation between text and sense: no experience can be conveyed from one mind to another without the text. I know I repeat this and keep repeating it; I keep reminding those who cling solely to the text: It is the Author of the text itself Who says refer to the facts of the world. You cannot get to the heart of meaning with the text alone. I may repeat an example that illustrates how our knowledge of the world conditions our understanding of the Qur'an. The two words, 'the sky' and 'the earth' are frequently used in the Qur'an, but what occurs to our mind when we come across 'sky' and 'earth' is not what occurred to the mind to the first audience of the Qur'an. This teaches us to always refer to the basic place, the real world in which we live. This is pointed to by both science and by God. Indeed, even the ancient Arabs used to say the moon is the moon; it is we who have different concepts of it. I may add here that when you hear or read the word 'fire' it does not burn your hand; it is just a symbol, a symbol that we utter. If we can comprehend this and digest it well, it will give us peace and comfort. We can tell anybody who makes any claim: If the signs of the world around us or the inner world of our souls testifies in your favor, then what you say is accepted, for the time being – until something emerges that is nearer to matching with the facts of the real world. It is as the Qur'an challenges a certain people who assert that they will neither believe in the present Scripture, nor in what was revealed to Moses: "Then bring ye a Book from God, which is a better guide than either of them, that I may follow it! Do, if ye are truthful:" (28:49). The idea of a pair (here the text and the real world) is a basic one in life, as the Qur'an tells us: "And of every thing We have created pairs, that ye may receive instruction;" (51:49). There is no proliferation in life without pairs. That is something that we can readily comprehend. But the Lord establishes the same connection between the text and the real world: "Then, by the Lord of heavens and earth, this is the very truth, as much as the fact that ye can speak intelligently to each other;" (51:23). It helps to analyze how we speak, what happens when we utter words; to remember the participants in the process of speaking: the speaker, the hearer, the topic, the words that express the sense, the vehicle of the sense, without which nothing can be conveyed. It must be clear to us that no sense may be conveyed without reference to reality. The classical example is always the sun, when men accepted for numberless centuries the illusion about its going round us, until the facts became known to them. Praise be to God Jawdat Sa'eed. 3 March, 1998 [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 62 2009-05-06T10:58:33Z Admin 1 Created page with ' ==What is your attitude towards the current trends in the interpretation of the holy texts...== '''..(the Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunnah), the purport of which is that any atte...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==What is your attitude towards the current trends in the interpretation of the holy texts...== '''..(the Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunnah), the purport of which is that any attempt at extracting a truth from the scriptures would open up a whole array of diverse interpretations; that even the effort to elucidate and analyze texts is a distortion, no matter how big a claim to impartiality and objectivity it makes. Does not this amount to affirming the relativity, or even to denying the truth that has been propounded by the Holy Writ?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} You see, my dear sir, how the same thing will come up again and again: Do we have to keep grappling with the problem of the text, a tug of war that seems to lead us nowhere? For again what is a text? It is aural or visual symbols which we agree they signify something and refer to it. A symbol must be paired with the experience, for without the experience the text loses its worth. A text is just a vehicle for the sense, and the relationship between the text and the sense is integrative, so that neither is operative without the other, and we cannot transfer an experience from one nervous system to another without the text. I have said this before, and I say it again: I keep telling the one who is an advocate of texts: Refer to the actual reality. No reality can be gleaned from texts. For instance, the words 'earth' and 'sky' evoke in our minds meanings that are not the same as they evoked in the minds of the people to whom the Qur'an descended. That necessitates that we refer to the fundamental source: this is what science directs us to do, and it is what God commands us to do. The Arabs have a proverb which says that the moon will not be faster or slower; it will be as it is; it is rather our concepts and values that change. If the text symbols were the actual reality, then the word fire would have ignited fire and hurt the mouth of its utterer. That is then the crux of the issue: once we get to the bottom of it, we shall feel contented; we shall see that when the signs of the world around us and the world of souls within testify to what we say, it proves that we have our hold on truth, and it will be so until something else emerges that testifies better for the truth. Let him who has a book which is a better guide bring it so that we follow it (ref. to the Qur'an, 28, 49.) That the pair should be there is a certainty, like the pairs in all creation: “And of every thing We have created pairs; that you may receive instruction, (the Qur'an, 51, 49);” without a pair, there will be no reproduction and no survival of life. The pair is mentioned by God in reference to the creation and the text, as in the following verse: “Then, by the Lord of heaven and earth, this is the very Truth, as much as the fact you can speak intelligently to each other, (51, 23).” It would be to the point if we analyze what takes place when we speak, by reviewing the elements of speaking: the speaker, the hearer, the topic under discussion, the words that bear the sense, and the referent of the sense without which the words lose their significance, I mean the actual reality about which we speak. Let's again remember the sun, how the whole world were in the wrong about it for eons of years, when they thought that it was the one which rotated and not the earth. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds Jawdat Sa'eed, 3 June, 1998 [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 23 111 104 2009-08-23T09:57:41Z Admin 1 moved [[Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress?]] to [[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? '''A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that.''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. Another juncture is that of Muhammad Arkoun. Arkoun has the distinction of having freed himself of that tendency, prevalent in the Muslim World, to take things to be either faultless or worthless, where, as Malek Bennabi explains, things can be too easily shifted from one to the other category: how easily would a freedom-fighter be in a minute stigmatized as a traitor, or a believer as a heretic or apostate. My experience with Iqbal was very unlike that with Malek Bennabi, for Iqbal was a sufi (mystic) poet, who soared in the sky, debating with men, jinn, satans, imperialism and Redwan, Paradise's guard. Iqbal showed great insight in comprehending the truth, and he knew it. He said: My eyes can perceive the pulse of the stars/and the flow of the blood in the moon's vessels. He knew much about the world and about man, far above other Muslims. He said, in his poetic style: Man is a limb of God's will. It was Iqbal who awakened us to the fact that though the Qur'an and Islam emerged before the age of science, it was the Qur'an which heralded the age of science. It was Iqbal, too, who alerted us to the importance of the facts of the real world and human experience (the signs in Qur'anic diction): in his words, the Qur'an takes the observable world, and man's inner world, as sources of knowledge. He pointed this out through a verse from the Qur'an which states: "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53). He shed on this verse a light that shines more and more with the passage of time. Iqbal acknowledged that it was Jalal al-Deen al-Rumi who transformed him, from being an ordinary person into a new being. I also learned something else from the story he recounts about al-Rumi, who searched and searched for a certain man who inspired him, Shams al-Deen al-Tabreezee; but after his long search he realized that the inspiration that he sought was inside his soul. It was Iqbal, too, who appreciated the significance of the 'seal of prophethood', the fact that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last apostle of Allah's. I think we do not yet appreciate the full significance of this fact; but history will reveal its full weight. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the seal (last) of prophets, but how important is this fact? Now, the whole phenomenon of prophethood, from Noah until Muhammad, lasted just less than five thousand years; so how will the situation of mankind be after a million years? Iqbal notes in this connection: It was right that the prophethood should come to an end, because the signs (facts) of the world and the signs in our own souls have become a source of learning the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me know right from wrong when considering that old question about the Hanafite and Shafiite madhabs, schools of Islamic law. He said: the way to knowing the truth about doctrines, philosophies, religions, and cultures, is to observe the kind of man which any of these doctrines, etc. produces. Iqbal was physiologically short-sighted, but he proved to have such a far-reaching intellect when he helped me solve the problem of shari'ah, God's law – it was such a giant idea when he said: Allah's shari'ah is realized when justice is realized; whatever comes closer to justice is closer to Allah's shari'ah. As for the details of the law, they will vary depending on the age, the objective always being the realization of justice and beautiful dealings. I am not saying that there are no other first rate thinkers, but I'm saying that the above are the greatest thinkers I knew of. The common factor in all these thinkers is their giving first place to man and appreciating man. But Oh! In what darkness we grope, when we kill each other! Where is the light! Where is the paradigm, as Heidegger says? == == So far, I think I have somehow attended to your first two questions, 1, the intellectual junctures, and 2, the intellectual elements. I was once a follower of the 'salafi' trend (following the example of the first generations of Islam), then I drew my inspiration from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and then it was Iqbal. Then I discovered Muhammad Arkoun, and that was a more demanding stage than any other, for when you are dealing with the West, it is not easy to see your way, and to detect the pitfalls. But I drew from Iqbal some strength. He used to say: Your civilization will keep tumbling and slipping, for a nest that is built on a fragile bough will not stay long; your fire does not dazzle my eyes, for I have chosen to follow Abraham's faith. Can we ever when dealing with the West adhere to the rule of "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (the Qur'an, 46:16)? Why should some of us see nothing of the West but its worst delusions and aberrations, while others see nothing but the opposite? It is right to say here that it is not only the means of transportation that the Westerners have invented, but they have invented a way of transferring rule without spilling blood: this latter innovation is far more worthy than the means of transportation. And while we are anxious to buy and buy vehicles ( buy rather than manufacture), we are not at all anxious to learn the transfer in politics and rule, the way rule can be transferred from person to person without spilling blood: not many of us believe in the power of the idea, that people can be persuaded rather than coerced; neither the secularist nor the pious believe in this. Though in the Western democracy the transfer of rule is tarnished by some deception and fraud to manipulate the voters, it is still not gained through intimidating people with the whip and iron and fire. Democracy is quite a new thing in the world, despite all the elementary forms that had appeared at various times in the past. Muslims had a certain form of free opinion at the time of the Upright Caliphs, and when they lost that Muslims felt in a vague way that something right was slipping away, and therefore some said, when Mu'awiyah was planning to have his son forced on people as ruler after him: "What are trying to do? Are you adopting the method of the czars, who when a czar dies, he is succeeded by a czar!" Muslims did feel that something great was being wasted, thought they did not quite understand the proper way. But mankind went beyond that, for as the Qur'an teaches us, and as I quoted above, God adds to creation as He pleases, and so how freedom and representation should be translated into an applied reality was developed and elaborated. Things do change. Modernity appeared in people's view of the universe, for at one time, and for so many centuries, men asserted that the sun orbited the earth, and when some declared that it was the other way round, that we were not at the center of the universe, many people were extremely alarmed and outraged: they felt something terrible would happen if man, and man's earth, were not at the center of the universe. Indeed, some people were prepared to die, or to send others to death, to keep the old idea intact. But the change was taking place in astronomy, and modernity was starting to take root, and our view of the universe was changing. Other things were happening, the steam engine, the combustion engine. Instead of the horse, the camel and the donkey, new means of transportation were introduced that the older generations had not dreamed of. The telescope enabled people to see what they never dreamed of seeing before; on the other hand the microscope showed people tiny particles that were never seen before: germs were seen that enabled men to discover the causes of epidemics; in this way cures for many diseases were discovered. And ever so much more sophistication is taking place. All started from Copernicus, and people can comprehend this; but the other revolution, that in the social, political, and human spheres is not yet appreciated. From observing history, one can notice a certain very curious phenomenon. In the past, kings seemed to be of huge stature, apparently there to stay for ever; and if a king was eliminated by assassination, then it was only his person who was eliminated. His same prestige was transferred to his successor. Also, the public in the past were taken to be an ignorant, worthless, a homogeneous mass; with no claim to any part at all in public affairs, apart from prostrating themselves before their monarch. And then, the astronomical revolution was followed by a social revolution, when kings dwindled and dwindled, until they are in the developed societies no more than relics from the past, physically preserved, but without any authority whatsoever. Power was being transferred to the people, very slowly, but very surely. This really is a move towards modernity, social modernity. Man is growing in stature; by which we mean that man's consciousness is growing, the more so as he learns more about history. One can recall the time when men offered human sacrifices, and how, when Abraham appeared, a stop was put to this offering of human sacrifices. It is right to see in the Islamic practices of offering an animal sacrifice during al-Adha Bairam, a declaration of the end of offering human sacrifices. It announces that humankind is developing and advancing. That with the advent of Islam a new epoch was arriving, and was being proclaimed in many ways. There is in the Qur'an the debate between Abraham and the tyrannical ruler, whom Abraham challenged to show any control over universe's laws (2:258.) That the unbeliever was nonplused is a reminder that the world is shocked when a new stage comes forth. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, announced during his 'farewell pilgrimage' the experience of Abraham, and he announced to all human beings: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No Arab is to be favored over a non-Arab, no white is to be favored over a black – except in piety." He added: Do not regress into wild life, spilling each other's blood." He also exhorted his audience to be kind to women, who were [at that time] confined at homes and wholly controlled by men. It was a new epoch of equity and the elimination of privileges, announced at least in theory. But the scientific transformation was slow, so slow, to take place. Am I straying away from the questions? Well, my justification is that the points are within the Islamic dilemma, and the human dilemma. I feel that the facts of the world are regaining to the texts their significance after they have been vitiated of it. It is relevant here to assert that the message of all the prophets is one and the same. No matter how we brand Christianity or Judaism as polytheistic or chauvinistic, the essence of all the divine religions is one and the same: they all revolve on monotheism which, as long as it remains intact, all other sins may be forgiven; but if it is marred, no act of devotion is accepted. We may read about that in the Qur'an: "For We assuredly sent amongst every people an apostles with the command, 'Serve God and eschew taghoot [the trespasser beyond all limits, the tyrant]' " (16:36) So let's remember the one message which was conveyed by each and every apostle, 'Serve God and eschew the taghhot'. Now in all the comments and exegeses on the Qur'an, I have never seen any adequate explanation of the word 'taghoot'. They merely render it as 'evil', 'Satan', or 'the idols'; while, if we do a little search about the derivatives of the word, for its root 'tagha', we find the Qur'an uses the word differently from what the commentators have taken it to be. We find for instance that God directs Moses to go to Pharaoh with these words, 'Go thou to Pharaoh, for he has indeed tagha [i.e. transgressed beyond all bounds.]' (76:17;) and we find, "[Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with …, and with …, ] And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these taghau [transgressed beyond bounds] in the land, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties: For thy Lord is like a guardian on a watch-tower." (89:10-14) No tyrant is held up in the Qur'an as the prototype of transgression and tyranny more than Pharaoh; not any name – apart from that of Allah – is mentioned in the Qur'an more often than that of Moses, the man who stood in the face of Pharaoh; and that in the greatest civilization of the ancient world. The Qur'an lets Pharaoh utter all he feels about the attitudes and nuances of the feelings of the oppressors, all that is publicly and privately uttered by this category as represented by their foremost archetype is recorded in the Qur'an. Moses is equally the model for challenging the tyrant; he keeps reminding his people of all they need to do to rid themselves of the submissive state to the transgressor. It must be revealing that the story of Moses and Pharaoh has been repeated in the Qur'an more than any other story, with varying details and lengths. It has definitely been given less than justice of investigation and analysis. It is to be noted that the issue of monotheism and polytheism does not focus on the divine aspect but on the attitude of individuals and communities: it is a human-social-political issue: it is concerned with putting right the relations among people – that God is One was not unknown to the Quraysh tribe which the Prophet, peace be on him, first addressed, exactly as now we say about God He is One. But still they rejected the message borne by the Messenger: the point of their dispute with the Messenger was that in that society some individuals were granted privileges not granted to the rest of society; some individuals were held to be above the law. The sort of community the Prophet, peace be upon him, was introducing, a society in which the law is applied to Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, in the same way as to any other man or woman, that was an unheard of society. Theirs was the same as the societies in our own time: we just need to cite the Veto Right in the foremost of all the organizations of our world to see that societies not only keep silent when this great transgression is committed, but those who are not endowed the Veto Right crave it bitterly. It shows that polytheism is still true of our time at the highest level in the world; the transgressors are the biggest powers in the world, and their transgression is endorsed by the smaller and smallest transgressors. Nobody stands up to denounce the Veto Right. It is for the above reason that Iqbal used to say that monotheism was not the opposite of multiple gods, but the opposite of 'shirk, i.e. taking some people to be above the law, not applying the law to some individuals.' When Pharaoh said: "I am your Lord, most high," (79:24), he meant that it was he, and no other person, who had the right to enact law, and to be himself exempt from the law. He said to his people, as the Qur'an reports: "I but point out to you that which I see myself, nor do I guide you but to the path of right;" (40:29); he said to his people: "No god do I know for you but myself!" (28:38); he said to Moses: "If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put thee in prison!" (26:29) and he said to his magicians, when they declared their converting to the new faith: "Believe ye in him before I give you permission? Surely he is your leader, who has taught you sorcery! But soon shall ye know! Be sure I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will cause you all to die on the cross!" (26:49-50).These events of history should teach us laws, in the same way as the chemist observes and experiments and draws out laws. The events of history point out how man builds up and destroys, that man is equal to establishing intelligent life, and is prone to ruin it: that was true in the past, and it is true at present. It is man's responsibility to do right: "Truly he succeeds that purifies [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it!" (91:9-10). If Pharaoh's sorcerers' ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66), there is similar magic now, when men now use the war-heads and missiles, assuming that they have control; they are indeed not better than Pharaoh's sorcerers. And we let ourselves be led into believing in the magic when we take those weapons to indicate that those who use them have control. Why do not we notice that all the atomic power of the former Soviet Union did not help in saving it from collapse? One lesson that we should have drawn is that as long as you give muscles rather than intellect your confidence, you are bound to fall, for you become a victim of your muscles. The prophets did better when they taught humankind a more extraordinary and revolutionary way of change in human relationships, a way of conducting human, social and political affairs in the most economical way, indeed without any cost to any party. The prophets reversed the equation adopted by many quarters: instead of a relationship based on muscular power, and on the threat of killing the other, instead of bragging: "I give life and death;" (the Qur'an, 2:258), it is in the prophets' way giving life and not death; instead of a relationship based on killing and counter-killing, it is a relationship based on holding back from killing. It is a radically different way of viewing things; it reverses matters completely; it utterly transforms the situation. That is so because instead of man being slave to man, he becomes a slave to the Lord of men. That is why the Qur'an does not say: "Kill the taghoot (the transgressor, the oppressor, the despot)"; but it rather says: "Those who eschew the taghoot and fall not into its worship, and turn to God in repentance, for them is good news: so announce the good news to My Servants;" (39:17) and it says: "God is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depth of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are taghoots: from light they lead them forth into the depths of darkness;" (2:257). Modernity first appeared in astronomy, and then it appeared in the social sphere. When someone started to write about 'Chosen Slavery', he meant that no one could enslave us without our consent; it meant that as long as we refused to be slaves no one could force slavery on us. And that is more true of great multitudes of people: no one can subject a great number of people to be enslaved without exercising some kind of magic or jugglery over them, exactly as the Pharaoh's magicians exercised it, when their ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66). Do you not see how a myriad of people are threatened with death, and they believe it! A magic no better than Pharaoh's magicians'. It is our responsibility to help people have consciousness enough to be freed from magic, any magic, not just one form of it. Our present writings bind people further to our chosen slavery. In view of ideas like the above I sometimes say that what the prophets taught, though it descended from heaven, has not yet reached the earth. What they taught was not killing people, and not killing the despot or the oppressor: it is rather to disobey the tyrant, if he commands you to kill; it is to hold back your hand in that case. Why has this point remained ignored and undiscussed; in the modern terminology, as used by Arkoun, it would be called unthought of, or even unthinkable. There was a time when it was impossible to think about an earth orbiting the sun: that was so according to the culture of a certain period, according to accepted concepts. Similarly, it is at this moment unthinkable that one refrains from killing if commanded to kill. How long will it take us to get out of our darkness? Bilal, Ammar, Sumayyah and Yaser, four companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, succeeded in getting out of obeying the oppressor and doing what he dictated; they simply held their hand back. And that is the real kernel of belief in the One God: to get out of being enslaved to the taghoot. That is why I say: instead of seeing the young Islamists being imprisoned or put to death or tortured for attempting to kill someone, I would prefer that they are tortured, put to death, or imprisoned because they have refused to kill. It is strange how we do not teach a Muslim youth not to kill Muslims! It is strange how we inspire him to kill the tyrant! How often in our history have we killed the tyrants, and the result has only been that their assassins turned themselves into tyrants. Will this simple fact be learned one day? All the armies of the world teach their soldiers to act on what they are commanded and to do so without objection: it is the commanding authority which bears the responsibility for the command. This is man's law; but Allah's law, belief in the One God, does not allow you to obey anyone when their command is contrary to God's command. From the first sura (chapter) that was revealed to the Prophet we learn to disobey an unjust command: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … Nay, heed him not: but bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer to God!" (96:9-19) It has been heartening to hear recently how more than thirty senior officers in the Turkish army were expelled for their 'indiscipline': they dared to perform their prayers in their barracks in public. When you insist on doing your prayer in defiance of the taghoot, you will learn, and you will inspire others to learn, to disobey him when he commands you to kill Muslims. Others are waiting for you to lead the way, so do not let them down: be the first to disobey the tyrant. Will we not learn when to disobey tyrants? They will go on commanding their soldiers to kill as long as they find soldiers who say: "Yes, Sir!" But Bilal, who technically was considered a slave, did better. He was owned by a master, but he learned that there was another Master, who had more right to be obeyed. As long his earthly master commanded that which did not contradict his Divine Master, he obeyed him; but when his earthly master commanded that which contradicted the commands of his Divine Master, then no obedience was due to the former. He challenged them in the same way Pharaoh's magicians said to their master: "decree whatever thou desirest to decree: for thou canst only decree touching the life of this world;" (the Qur'an, 20:72). The issue of monotheism and polytheism is at present vague and dim: how can it be otherwise when we ourselves, not having had matured in relation to this issue, do not bear it to people in the proper way? I did quote above the prophets' message, one and all, as the Qur'an reports: "Serve Allah, and eschew the taghoot 'the transgressor beyond all bounds'!" (16:36) About this message, the Qur'an also says, addressing Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him: "it has already been revealed to thee – as it was to those before thee – 'if thou were to join gods with God, truly fruitless will be thy work in life, and thou wilt surely be in the ranks of those who lose all good' " (39:65). It is the easiest thing to observe, in connection with the last verse, how we, Muslims, are losers – who indeed is a bigger loser than we are in the whole world! How, when no day passes but we have poured on our heads severe catastrophes that humiliate us, so that we no longer can raise our head, neither before others, nor even in private. I know that I view the world and understand it in a way different from what many view and understand. But this helps me see the light of the Qur'an. I feel that my conception helps me confront the world and announce what I have to say. I feel this approach makes the laws of the world match the verses of the Qur'an. We realize that the laws of the world and the verses of the Qur'an proceed from the same Source, and when they work together there is great light, and they will give man a great peace. Take for instance the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion:" (2:256). It neutralizes the use of power over man's heart and mind. Allah allows no material power to control man's heart and mind. He protects man's conscience from compulsion. It is so because belief that is the result of compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief: that is why, if Muslims conquer an unbeliever physically, he has the right to adhere to his disbelief, and Muslims are bound to respect that and to let him be. One achievement of modernity has been its declaration of the freedom of faith; it is an article that is included in all modern constitutions. It asserts that man's faith is protected, that he may not be made to change his faith by force, but rather by persuasion. Now this principle, that force may not be the means to changing people's faith took root when some nations' physical strength reached a point where it could destroy the earth and all life upon it. This maximization of strength led to important and obvious results, although people's adhering to old habits, and the long tradition of yielding to force, continues to be operative, although their hold keeps weakening. Since the first atomic bomb was detonated more than fifty years back, a new state of things has started to take place, although the world does not seem to fully appreciate it, as the old language of threats is still in use: it is a language that is obsolete in practice, but is still in theory, opposite to many situations in which we assert an idea in theory, but do not act upon it in practice. Now after force has lost its theoretical basis, it has become a killing crime. That is why the big powers no longer fight among themselves and it has ceased to be an option among them: they know this well, and abide by it, too. Among the big powers, violence and fighting are no longer in use; but they are still the policy when they deal with the less fortunate parts of the world. In these other parts of the world, to which we belong, people still believe in force, that real change can be effected through compulsion. Let it be remembered, however, that once we, small powers, engage in violence, as we often do, the benefiting party will be the big powers. This is such a true rule that anyone, among the small powers, who tries to solve his problem by resorting to violence, will have sold his case to the big enemies; and that is so no matter if one happens to be the initiator of violence or not. As for the big powers, some do fall to be sure, but not through fighting, as happened to the former Soviet Union. It collapsed from within, not because of any external enemy who intervened in their life and brought about their collapse. We may also look at the other side of the coin: what happened to Japan, a nation that surrendered unconditionally as a result of the two atomic bombs dropped on it during the Second World War. And then, not long after that, you see the Japanese sitting, without possessing atomic weaponry, on a footing with the seven big powers of the world. There must be in this a lesson to learn how this happened without destructive weapons: the Japanese are human beings like us, and without even a Divine Book, not being Jews, Christians, or Muslims; and in this there is more reason to reflect and try to understand how it happened. Therefore we may say, Abdul-Jabbar, that when the Qur'an commands us to have ready against our enemy all the strength we can (8:60), the strength we need to take care of is no longer that of physical weaponry; we do know that, in the above verse Muslims were commanded to have steeds of war ready, but of course nobody would now consider having horses in stables in preparation for war, nor having spears and swords. Likewise, we no longer do we need to have ready tanks, atomic bombs nor Teton bombs. They are all obsolete. As long as man has the skill to control and to think can adopt other alternatives. For man is enabled by God to corrupt his soul, or to purify it; he is also enabled to control things. One effect of the obsolescence of the physical power's control of the intellect is the coming into existence of the European Union. It was not imposed with force – on the contrary, it came into existence in response to the elimination of physical conflict, the physical conflict which had long been adopted for the gaining of advantage and prestige. Modern Europe was not united by a Napoleon or a Hitler, though each had reached Russia and the Arab World: but one died by committing suicide, while the other died in exile. And now, when Europe unites, it is not on the basis of Germany above all, or France above all; it is rather on the basis of Germany is equal to any other member of the Union. It is on the basis of getting over all the arrogant boastfulness; it is by getting over the stinking chauvinism that the Messenger, peace be upon him, cautioned against: "Abandon that ethnic arrogance, for it stinks." I am not unaware of some of the objections to these ideas. Some will cite Israel, which adopts force, and has used it in establishing itself, in maintaining its existence and in guaranteeing its survival. Malek Bennabi used to compare Israel to the red cloth which is carried by a matador: a red cloth is carried to infuriate the bull, and the bull will butt at the cloth, unaware of the man who holds the cloth; in this way the matador can at the right time stab it. Those who attach their hopes to weapons are really doing what Israel was established for: It was established to distract our attention from our real woes. As I said, it was Malek Bennabi who gave me such a jolt when he rated Israel as not a primary but a secondary problem. From then, my understanding was improving, until the Second Gulf War came, and that was the last straw. It was an event that exposed all the shortcomings of Arabs and Muslims: in a minute, we forgot Israel, and turned against our own brethren. All the pre-Islamic culture came to the forefront, for the Arabs used then to attack their own kin with all their might. We suddenly thought that one Arab state was more dangerous for Arabs than Israel and its allies. Considerations like the above show that the Islamist's culture is the same as the secularist's, despite all their superficial differences. They are the same in their blind allegiances to a past that we have not brought under analysis, or to foreign systems that we do not comprehend, to systems that are really on their way to decadence and disintegration. The Islamists are not more perceptive than the secularists, nor are they more capable of conducting an investigation into things, but let us hope that the new generation will learn more as more experiences are accumulating. If the events of Afghanistan and Algeria are deplorable, the events in Turkey and Iran give us hopes that come rather as a surprise. We need to look sharp at the events in Iran and Turkey, and to interpret them in a mature way, and I personally have my own reading of those events. What happened in Iran is something new, unprecedented in the Muslim World. Until it happened, all the political changes in the Muslim World used to take place through an internal coup, through tribal or familial rivalry. The public, the common people were absent from the scenes. In some cases it was the military commanders who led the coup d'état. Iran's revolution was unlike any of the above: it was the masses' revolution, and the woman's before the man's. That was a major shift in perspective, a most radical change of events. It was such a great event that its greatness was perhaps why we did not appreciate it! Some merely said it was miraculous, some said it was a Divine act, that it cannot be analyzed with reference to the laws of this world. When the Shah issued his edicts of curfew, Khomeini commanded people to defy the Shah's command and go out into the streets, men and women. They had nothing in their hands but flowers to offer to soldiers. Women are more efficient in such a situation than men; nor does such procedure require any military training, nor any weapons: the only condition is that each individual announces that he/she is free in practicing his/her faith: I'll hold on to my faith, and I disbelieve in that other doctrine, so kill me if you like. And big numbers were actually killed, but there was always someone ready to replace the martyr. In that way, the Shah was expelled without any shot against him; no one was trying to assassinate him. That was the way for transferring the authority to the masses. They realized that no power could resist the people's power. That was a new discovery, a new power in the full sense of newness. It was not in need for the polling box as in Algeria; nor was it like Afghanistan, where they sought to isolate the woman at home. No internal or external power was able to stop the Iranian revolution. When people have consciousness no external power can suppress their power. And so, despite all the hue and cry, it was not possible to frustrate the Iranian revolution. It remained steadfast and assertive, despite all the deplorable experience with Iraq. Let me dream here, and let Abdul-Jabbar and the readers forgive me, that the Iranians were capable of dominating Iraq, if they had adhered to the same way they had used with the Shah, but they did not use the same way. But they will learn. The budding democracy of Iran will take root, God willing. The democratic challenge of Iran is picking speed; they prove that they are capable of conducting free elections, that two different candidates can compete, and that one can be chosen in a peaceful democratic way. The world had thought that though the Khomeini revolution succeeded, Iran would not succeed in its second test, a democratic transfer of authority, but it did succeed. Their progress towards democracy is remarkable, and it is replete with significance. The Iranian nation has enjoyed the sweet taste of success, and will not give up its democracy; the masses are determining their own destiny, and one only can wish them success. It is setting the mode for an Islamic community that its neighbors feel safe with: this is a capital that is invaluable, no money and no treasure are equal to this, to make your neighbor feel safe with you, that your neighbor is sure you will not stab him in the back, even if he does you a mischief, that you only work for his good. This is a new relationship that no troublemakers can spoil, and we hope that there are enough wise people to maintain it, in spite of the discordant voices. Similarly, the Turks, who had been the first Muslims to throw off Islamic rule, [though really a corrupt caliphate] – it is they themselves who now go ahead of other Muslim nations in challenging secularism with democracy. They proceed in steady steps, and that is a proof that the Almighty God will have His light grow into perfection, and what happens at a local scale will spread to a regional and international scale. Those who uphold isolation and war are becoming less and less, and those who oppose isolation and war are growing in number, and getting more steadfast. Allah did hint to the angels that man would get over mischief and spilling blood (the Qur'an, 2:30), and we have reason to believe that this is coming to be realized. Problems which seemed to have no solution are solvable now, without human sacrifices. I say that not only because I believe in the unseen, but on the basis of actual signs in the real world. And now, let's get back to the problem of Israel, a phenomenon that did its part in full, by distracting Muslims from their real obligations, from dealing with the huge problems that they have inherited over the centuries. One of the things that are not thought about, for instance, is that Arabs often talk about peace with Israel, although Israel does not have the bases for survival; they harp on peace with Israel, while they ignore the pressing issue of peace among ourselves. It is here that the work lies. Malek Bennabi used to say: When we begin to talk about colonisibility more than we talk about colonialism, then we are on the way to solving our problems. That the problem lies in us is asserted by God, by His Prophet, peace be upon him, by Adam, and even by the Devil – Allah says, as we recite in the Qur'an: "What! When a single disaster smites you, although ye smote your enemies with one twice as great, do you say: 'Whence is this?' Say to them: 'It is from yourselves;' " (3:165). Incidentally, the Qur'an is the only book that blames the victim more than it blames the oppressor or aggressor; it is so for the oppressor cannot inflict his oppression without our giving him the chance to do so; should we stop giving him the chance, he will just fall. As for the Prophet, peace be upon him, he says, in the course of a long tradition: "Let him who encounters a good outcome praise God for it; and let him who encounters an adverse outcome blame no one but himself." But we are still prepared to blame everyone and anyone, except ourselves. Adam, peace be upon him, having eaten, together with his wife, from the forbidden tree, and after Allah had reprimanded them: "Did I not forbid you that tree?" he replied, together with his wife: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls;" (7:22-23) They accepted to take the responsibility for their mistake, and therefore merited to be appointed viceroys in the earth. As for Satan, he will say to his followers on the Day of Judgment, as the Qur'an reports: "I had no authority over you except to call you, but ye listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls;" (14:22) In this connection, the historian Toynbee summed up history by saying that civilizations did not die like martyrs, but like suicide committers: it is only after civilizations have died that vultures and eagles, come upon the corpses of those civilizations and eat them. It is worth our while to reflect on what prevents us from considering peace among ourselves. We really have to look into that! There is a long history of wrangling and squabbling among us that blocks our considering the other alternative. I have personally often questioned people about that, and have always found it is merely that people are unable to imagine that we are capable of realizing peace among ourselves, a peace in which there is no loser, in which everyone is a winner: kings, presidents, princes, financiers, land-owners. No one will lose anything; indeed they will all gain. It is something that people in our part of the world cannot imagine, because they have a presupposition that problems may not be solved without eliminating the other, or grabbing what he has. The truth, however, is that in this new alternative no one will be a loser; all will be winners; and we can actually observe how this is happening on the earth, not in a remote galaxy. History is the best witness to the outcome of peaceful dealings and aggressive dealings. Therefore, the more Israel impedes peaceful efforts, the more we should solidify peace among ourselves, and blame ourselves for our mistakes, not blame each other. I address this not to politicians and statesmen, who are preoccupied with their immediate problems. I address the ordinary person, the ordinary man and woman. To them I say there is a solution in which there is no loser, all are winners. We have a presupposition inculcated in us, even before we learn to talk, that we need to eliminate some party to unite the Muslims. In this way we condone the stabbing in the back, and we extol the conduct of those who betray: the implication of our behavior is that to get over treason, the only way is to do further treason. The truth is that the right approach to eliminating wrongdoing is not to commit more wrongdoing, but to behave righteously. When I speak of peace among ourselves, I do not call to this in secret, but publicly. Is it a sin to call to this peace among ourselves? Only a guilty conscience may stand in the way to this objective. This is not even a call to democracy, for democracy is still a far cry, but at least let us begin with something within our reach. If we proceed with this, people will feel that there is room for an idea other than what is prevalent so far, that there are some who believe in this other option, who discuss it, and who meet to affirm it. It is a simple thing that I am calling to, so let us repeat it frequently enough until it becomes familiar to the ears of everybody. At present people say what many peoples used to say to the prophets as the Qur'an reports: "Never did we hear such a thing as he says among our ancestors of old;" (23:24). We should repeat until it becomes a quite familiar thing to people, and until they themselves say it. At least in this way it will settle into people's hearts that there can be peace and safety among Muslims and believers. How else can peace be realized? If that settles into our consciousness, then we shall hail those who contribute to the peace and safety among Arabs and Muslims, not those who want to unite the Arabs or Muslims with the sword. Let us remember how with a minimum of cooperation among Arabs during the 1973 war, they accomplished something: they felt that their oil belonged to them, and they felt the confidence of crossing the fear barrier. Let us remember on the other hand that when two Arab countries fell apart in the Gulf war, they lost their dignity and their money. Not after more than ten years can we sit together amicably. The road to peace is still open, but we need to have the concepts right in our minds and then to talk; we need to talk with full understanding and consciousness. At the moment, the way to peace is not evident even in theory, let alone its realization in practice. We need to explore the way of peace, and to pave that way, so that people may go along that way with confidence. People have certain preconceptions which are not voiced, but which are more operative than any written and signed contract: they have implicitly conspired that since the time Muslims lost the right guided state, and since they fell into a state of compulsion in politics (with the coming of the Umayyads), it was right for regaining that upright state to resort to compulsion and treachery. No one said that, as it is not right to be announced, but everyone had it in mind, and it was transmitted to everyone, until it has settled down as the most natural thing. Not until now can we dare face that implicit complicity; we do not recall it to consciousness to be healed of it, or to start to be healed of it. But we have really to get back to that right guided approach in understanding the words of the Lord when He says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion: uprightness stands out clear from error: whoever rejects taghoot 'the tyrannical transgressor' and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks;" (2:256). In the above verse when Allah says: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion,' this directive is indicative of what distinguishes uprightness from error or misguidance; that compulsion IS misguidance. That becomes more manifest when we go to the third clause, 'whoever rejects taghoot and believes in God …', for the taghoot believes in compulsion; indeed his life, survival, and very existence are based on compulsion. To reject that taghoot, and to believe in Allah, that is in Allah's religion, and to believe in His command to abstain from compulsion – that is grasping the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. Another aspect of that implicit and misguided complicity, something that has spread until it is taken to be for granted is that if truth and falsehood are given equal chance, falsehood will have the better of truth, that truth will be defeated, and people will choose falsehood, rather than truth. Now first of all this is mistrusting God; it is about an attitude like this that the Qur'an says: "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154) and it says: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost;" (41:23) And secondly, God says about truth and falsehood, that "truth has now arrived, and falsehood perished: for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish;" (17:81) The Qur'an never says that once falsehood arrives, truth will perish, but it is settled in our hearts that it is so. Somehow it has been inspired into our hearts over the centuries to dread falsehood in an unnatural and unwarranted degree. The Qur'an says: "Say: 'the truth has arrived, and falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything;" (34:49). And it says: "Nay, we hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish;" (21:18) It is mistrusting God; it is also mistrusting truth and Islam, when we suppose that if people are given the choice, they will abandon truth and Islam. It is in the third place mistrusting man, when we think that he is more inclined to evil than to goodness. But man does not have peace of heart except when he chooses goodness; it is when men sink into ignorance that their bad deeds will seem good in their eyes. Therefore, it is our duty to deliver the message in the clearest way. When things are quite manifest, then those who insist on adhering to falsehood, the condemned, will be a small minority. It is God's law that the majority of people will choose truth once it is made absolutely clear. [Translator's note: Mr. Sa'eed has skipped the reply to Question Two, without explicitly saying why. It seems that he assumed that he had said enough about it in the course of his answer to Question One.] [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 104 103 2009-08-23T09:46:05Z Admin 1 /* */ wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? '''A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that.''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. Another juncture is that of Muhammad Arkoun. Arkoun has the distinction of having freed himself of that tendency, prevalent in the Muslim World, to take things to be either faultless or worthless, where, as Malek Bennabi explains, things can be too easily shifted from one to the other category: how easily would a freedom-fighter be in a minute stigmatized as a traitor, or a believer as a heretic or apostate. My experience with Iqbal was very unlike that with Malek Bennabi, for Iqbal was a sufi (mystic) poet, who soared in the sky, debating with men, jinn, satans, imperialism and Redwan, Paradise's guard. Iqbal showed great insight in comprehending the truth, and he knew it. He said: My eyes can perceive the pulse of the stars/and the flow of the blood in the moon's vessels. He knew much about the world and about man, far above other Muslims. He said, in his poetic style: Man is a limb of God's will. It was Iqbal who awakened us to the fact that though the Qur'an and Islam emerged before the age of science, it was the Qur'an which heralded the age of science. It was Iqbal, too, who alerted us to the importance of the facts of the real world and human experience (the signs in Qur'anic diction): in his words, the Qur'an takes the observable world, and man's inner world, as sources of knowledge. He pointed this out through a verse from the Qur'an which states: "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53). He shed on this verse a light that shines more and more with the passage of time. Iqbal acknowledged that it was Jalal al-Deen al-Rumi who transformed him, from being an ordinary person into a new being. I also learned something else from the story he recounts about al-Rumi, who searched and searched for a certain man who inspired him, Shams al-Deen al-Tabreezee; but after his long search he realized that the inspiration that he sought was inside his soul. It was Iqbal, too, who appreciated the significance of the 'seal of prophethood', the fact that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last apostle of Allah's. I think we do not yet appreciate the full significance of this fact; but history will reveal its full weight. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the seal (last) of prophets, but how important is this fact? Now, the whole phenomenon of prophethood, from Noah until Muhammad, lasted just less than five thousand years; so how will the situation of mankind be after a million years? Iqbal notes in this connection: It was right that the prophethood should come to an end, because the signs (facts) of the world and the signs in our own souls have become a source of learning the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me know right from wrong when considering that old question about the Hanafite and Shafiite madhabs, schools of Islamic law. He said: the way to knowing the truth about doctrines, philosophies, religions, and cultures, is to observe the kind of man which any of these doctrines, etc. produces. Iqbal was physiologically short-sighted, but he proved to have such a far-reaching intellect when he helped me solve the problem of shari'ah, God's law – it was such a giant idea when he said: Allah's shari'ah is realized when justice is realized; whatever comes closer to justice is closer to Allah's shari'ah. As for the details of the law, they will vary depending on the age, the objective always being the realization of justice and beautiful dealings. I am not saying that there are no other first rate thinkers, but I'm saying that the above are the greatest thinkers I knew of. The common factor in all these thinkers is their giving first place to man and appreciating man. But Oh! In what darkness we grope, when we kill each other! Where is the light! Where is the paradigm, as Heidegger says? == == So far, I think I have somehow attended to your first two questions, 1, the intellectual junctures, and 2, the intellectual elements. I was once a follower of the 'salafi' trend (following the example of the first generations of Islam), then I drew my inspiration from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and then it was Iqbal. Then I discovered Muhammad Arkoun, and that was a more demanding stage than any other, for when you are dealing with the West, it is not easy to see your way, and to detect the pitfalls. But I drew from Iqbal some strength. He used to say: Your civilization will keep tumbling and slipping, for a nest that is built on a fragile bough will not stay long; your fire does not dazzle my eyes, for I have chosen to follow Abraham's faith. Can we ever when dealing with the West adhere to the rule of "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (the Qur'an, 46:16)? Why should some of us see nothing of the West but its worst delusions and aberrations, while others see nothing but the opposite? It is right to say here that it is not only the means of transportation that the Westerners have invented, but they have invented a way of transferring rule without spilling blood: this latter innovation is far more worthy than the means of transportation. And while we are anxious to buy and buy vehicles ( buy rather than manufacture), we are not at all anxious to learn the transfer in politics and rule, the way rule can be transferred from person to person without spilling blood: not many of us believe in the power of the idea, that people can be persuaded rather than coerced; neither the secularist nor the pious believe in this. Though in the Western democracy the transfer of rule is tarnished by some deception and fraud to manipulate the voters, it is still not gained through intimidating people with the whip and iron and fire. Democracy is quite a new thing in the world, despite all the elementary forms that had appeared at various times in the past. Muslims had a certain form of free opinion at the time of the Upright Caliphs, and when they lost that Muslims felt in a vague way that something right was slipping away, and therefore some said, when Mu'awiyah was planning to have his son forced on people as ruler after him: "What are trying to do? Are you adopting the method of the czars, who when a czar dies, he is succeeded by a czar!" Muslims did feel that something great was being wasted, thought they did not quite understand the proper way. But mankind went beyond that, for as the Qur'an teaches us, and as I quoted above, God adds to creation as He pleases, and so how freedom and representation should be translated into an applied reality was developed and elaborated. Things do change. Modernity appeared in people's view of the universe, for at one time, and for so many centuries, men asserted that the sun orbited the earth, and when some declared that it was the other way round, that we were not at the center of the universe, many people were extremely alarmed and outraged: they felt something terrible would happen if man, and man's earth, were not at the center of the universe. Indeed, some people were prepared to die, or to send others to death, to keep the old idea intact. But the change was taking place in astronomy, and modernity was starting to take root, and our view of the universe was changing. Other things were happening, the steam engine, the combustion engine. Instead of the horse, the camel and the donkey, new means of transportation were introduced that the older generations had not dreamed of. The telescope enabled people to see what they never dreamed of seeing before; on the other hand the microscope showed people tiny particles that were never seen before: germs were seen that enabled men to discover the causes of epidemics; in this way cures for many diseases were discovered. And ever so much more sophistication is taking place. All started from Copernicus, and people can comprehend this; but the other revolution, that in the social, political, and human spheres is not yet appreciated. From observing history, one can notice a certain very curious phenomenon. In the past, kings seemed to be of huge stature, apparently there to stay for ever; and if a king was eliminated by assassination, then it was only his person who was eliminated. His same prestige was transferred to his successor. Also, the public in the past were taken to be an ignorant, worthless, a homogeneous mass; with no claim to any part at all in public affairs, apart from prostrating themselves before their monarch. And then, the astronomical revolution was followed by a social revolution, when kings dwindled and dwindled, until they are in the developed societies no more than relics from the past, physically preserved, but without any authority whatsoever. Power was being transferred to the people, very slowly, but very surely. This really is a move towards modernity, social modernity. Man is growing in stature; by which we mean that man's consciousness is growing, the more so as he learns more about history. One can recall the time when men offered human sacrifices, and how, when Abraham appeared, a stop was put to this offering of human sacrifices. It is right to see in the Islamic practices of offering an animal sacrifice during al-Adha Bairam, a declaration of the end of offering human sacrifices. It announces that humankind is developing and advancing. That with the advent of Islam a new epoch was arriving, and was being proclaimed in many ways. There is in the Qur'an the debate between Abraham and the tyrannical ruler, whom Abraham challenged to show any control over universe's laws (2:258.) That the unbeliever was nonplused is a reminder that the world is shocked when a new stage comes forth. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, announced during his 'farewell pilgrimage' the experience of Abraham, and he announced to all human beings: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No Arab is to be favored over a non-Arab, no white is to be favored over a black – except in piety." He added: Do not regress into wild life, spilling each other's blood." He also exhorted his audience to be kind to women, who were [at that time] confined at homes and wholly controlled by men. It was a new epoch of equity and the elimination of privileges, announced at least in theory. But the scientific transformation was slow, so slow, to take place. Am I straying away from the questions? Well, my justification is that the points are within the Islamic dilemma, and the human dilemma. I feel that the facts of the world are regaining to the texts their significance after they have been vitiated of it. It is relevant here to assert that the message of all the prophets is one and the same. No matter how we brand Christianity or Judaism as polytheistic or chauvinistic, the essence of all the divine religions is one and the same: they all revolve on monotheism which, as long as it remains intact, all other sins may be forgiven; but if it is marred, no act of devotion is accepted. We may read about that in the Qur'an: "For We assuredly sent amongst every people an apostles with the command, 'Serve God and eschew taghoot [the trespasser beyond all limits, the tyrant]' " (16:36) So let's remember the one message which was conveyed by each and every apostle, 'Serve God and eschew the taghhot'. Now in all the comments and exegeses on the Qur'an, I have never seen any adequate explanation of the word 'taghoot'. They merely render it as 'evil', 'Satan', or 'the idols'; while, if we do a little search about the derivatives of the word, for its root 'tagha', we find the Qur'an uses the word differently from what the commentators have taken it to be. We find for instance that God directs Moses to go to Pharaoh with these words, 'Go thou to Pharaoh, for he has indeed tagha [i.e. transgressed beyond all bounds.]' (76:17;) and we find, "[Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with …, and with …, ] And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these taghau [transgressed beyond bounds] in the land, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties: For thy Lord is like a guardian on a watch-tower." (89:10-14) No tyrant is held up in the Qur'an as the prototype of transgression and tyranny more than Pharaoh; not any name – apart from that of Allah – is mentioned in the Qur'an more often than that of Moses, the man who stood in the face of Pharaoh; and that in the greatest civilization of the ancient world. The Qur'an lets Pharaoh utter all he feels about the attitudes and nuances of the feelings of the oppressors, all that is publicly and privately uttered by this category as represented by their foremost archetype is recorded in the Qur'an. Moses is equally the model for challenging the tyrant; he keeps reminding his people of all they need to do to rid themselves of the submissive state to the transgressor. It must be revealing that the story of Moses and Pharaoh has been repeated in the Qur'an more than any other story, with varying details and lengths. It has definitely been given less than justice of investigation and analysis. It is to be noted that the issue of monotheism and polytheism does not focus on the divine aspect but on the attitude of individuals and communities: it is a human-social-political issue: it is concerned with putting right the relations among people – that God is One was not unknown to the Quraysh tribe which the Prophet, peace be on him, first addressed, exactly as now we say about God He is One. But still they rejected the message borne by the Messenger: the point of their dispute with the Messenger was that in that society some individuals were granted privileges not granted to the rest of society; some individuals were held to be above the law. The sort of community the Prophet, peace be upon him, was introducing, a society in which the law is applied to Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, in the same way as to any other man or woman, that was an unheard of society. Theirs was the same as the societies in our own time: we just need to cite the Veto Right in the foremost of all the organizations of our world to see that societies not only keep silent when this great transgression is committed, but those who are not endowed the Veto Right crave it bitterly. It shows that polytheism is still true of our time at the highest level in the world; the transgressors are the biggest powers in the world, and their transgression is endorsed by the smaller and smallest transgressors. Nobody stands up to denounce the Veto Right. It is for the above reason that Iqbal used to say that monotheism was not the opposite of multiple gods, but the opposite of 'shirk, i.e. taking some people to be above the law, not applying the law to some individuals.' When Pharaoh said: "I am your Lord, most high," (79:24), he meant that it was he, and no other person, who had the right to enact law, and to be himself exempt from the law. He said to his people, as the Qur'an reports: "I but point out to you that which I see myself, nor do I guide you but to the path of right;" (40:29); he said to his people: "No god do I know for you but myself!" (28:38); he said to Moses: "If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put thee in prison!" (26:29) and he said to his magicians, when they declared their converting to the new faith: "Believe ye in him before I give you permission? Surely he is your leader, who has taught you sorcery! But soon shall ye know! Be sure I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will cause you all to die on the cross!" (26:49-50).These events of history should teach us laws, in the same way as the chemist observes and experiments and draws out laws. The events of history point out how man builds up and destroys, that man is equal to establishing intelligent life, and is prone to ruin it: that was true in the past, and it is true at present. It is man's responsibility to do right: "Truly he succeeds that purifies [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it!" (91:9-10). If Pharaoh's sorcerers' ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66), there is similar magic now, when men now use the war-heads and missiles, assuming that they have control; they are indeed not better than Pharaoh's sorcerers. And we let ourselves be led into believing in the magic when we take those weapons to indicate that those who use them have control. Why do not we notice that all the atomic power of the former Soviet Union did not help in saving it from collapse? One lesson that we should have drawn is that as long as you give muscles rather than intellect your confidence, you are bound to fall, for you become a victim of your muscles. The prophets did better when they taught humankind a more extraordinary and revolutionary way of change in human relationships, a way of conducting human, social and political affairs in the most economical way, indeed without any cost to any party. The prophets reversed the equation adopted by many quarters: instead of a relationship based on muscular power, and on the threat of killing the other, instead of bragging: "I give life and death;" (the Qur'an, 2:258), it is in the prophets' way giving life and not death; instead of a relationship based on killing and counter-killing, it is a relationship based on holding back from killing. It is a radically different way of viewing things; it reverses matters completely; it utterly transforms the situation. That is so because instead of man being slave to man, he becomes a slave to the Lord of men. That is why the Qur'an does not say: "Kill the taghoot (the transgressor, the oppressor, the despot)"; but it rather says: "Those who eschew the taghoot and fall not into its worship, and turn to God in repentance, for them is good news: so announce the good news to My Servants;" (39:17) and it says: "God is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depth of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are taghoots: from light they lead them forth into the depths of darkness;" (2:257). Modernity first appeared in astronomy, and then it appeared in the social sphere. When someone started to write about 'Chosen Slavery', he meant that no one could enslave us without our consent; it meant that as long as we refused to be slaves no one could force slavery on us. And that is more true of great multitudes of people: no one can subject a great number of people to be enslaved without exercising some kind of magic or jugglery over them, exactly as the Pharaoh's magicians exercised it, when their ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66). Do you not see how a myriad of people are threatened with death, and they believe it! A magic no better than Pharaoh's magicians'. It is our responsibility to help people have consciousness enough to be freed from magic, any magic, not just one form of it. Our present writings bind people further to our chosen slavery. In view of ideas like the above I sometimes say that what the prophets taught, though it descended from heaven, has not yet reached the earth. What they taught was not killing people, and not killing the despot or the oppressor: it is rather to disobey the tyrant, if he commands you to kill; it is to hold back your hand in that case. Why has this point remained ignored and undiscussed; in the modern terminology, as used by Arkoun, it would be called unthought of, or even unthinkable. There was a time when it was impossible to think about an earth orbiting the sun: that was so according to the culture of a certain period, according to accepted concepts. Similarly, it is at this moment unthinkable that one refrains from killing if commanded to kill. How long will it take us to get out of our darkness? Bilal, Ammar, Sumayyah and Yaser, four companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, succeeded in getting out of obeying the oppressor and doing what he dictated; they simply held their hand back. And that is the real kernel of belief in the One God: to get out of being enslaved to the taghoot. That is why I say: instead of seeing the young Islamists being imprisoned or put to death or tortured for attempting to kill someone, I would prefer that they are tortured, put to death, or imprisoned because they have refused to kill. It is strange how we do not teach a Muslim youth not to kill Muslims! It is strange how we inspire him to kill the tyrant! How often in our history have we killed the tyrants, and the result has only been that their assassins turned themselves into tyrants. Will this simple fact be learned one day? All the armies of the world teach their soldiers to act on what they are commanded and to do so without objection: it is the commanding authority which bears the responsibility for the command. This is man's law; but Allah's law, belief in the One God, does not allow you to obey anyone when their command is contrary to God's command. From the first sura (chapter) that was revealed to the Prophet we learn to disobey an unjust command: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … Nay, heed him not: but bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer to God!" (96:9-19) It has been heartening to hear recently how more than thirty senior officers in the Turkish army were expelled for their 'indiscipline': they dared to perform their prayers in their barracks in public. When you insist on doing your prayer in defiance of the taghoot, you will learn, and you will inspire others to learn, to disobey him when he commands you to kill Muslims. Others are waiting for you to lead the way, so do not let them down: be the first to disobey the tyrant. Will we not learn when to disobey tyrants? They will go on commanding their soldiers to kill as long as they find soldiers who say: "Yes, Sir!" But Bilal, who technically was considered a slave, did better. He was owned by a master, but he learned that there was another Master, who had more right to be obeyed. As long his earthly master commanded that which did not contradict his Divine Master, he obeyed him; but when his earthly master commanded that which contradicted the commands of his Divine Master, then no obedience was due to the former. He challenged them in the same way Pharaoh's magicians said to their master: "decree whatever thou desirest to decree: for thou canst only decree touching the life of this world;" (the Qur'an, 20:72). The issue of monotheism and polytheism is at present vague and dim: how can it be otherwise when we ourselves, not having had matured in relation to this issue, do not bear it to people in the proper way? I did quote above the prophets' message, one and all, as the Qur'an reports: "Serve Allah, and eschew the taghoot 'the transgressor beyond all bounds'!" (16:36) About this message, the Qur'an also says, addressing Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him: "it has already been revealed to thee – as it was to those before thee – 'if thou were to join gods with God, truly fruitless will be thy work in life, and thou wilt surely be in the ranks of those who lose all good' " (39:65). It is the easiest thing to observe, in connection with the last verse, how we, Muslims, are losers – who indeed is a bigger loser than we are in the whole world! How, when no day passes but we have poured on our heads severe catastrophes that humiliate us, so that we no longer can raise our head, neither before others, nor even in private. I know that I view the world and understand it in a way different from what many view and understand. But this helps me see the light of the Qur'an. I feel that my conception helps me confront the world and announce what I have to say. I feel this approach makes the laws of the world match the verses of the Qur'an. We realize that the laws of the world and the verses of the Qur'an proceed from the same Source, and when they work together there is great light, and they will give man a great peace. Take for instance the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion:" (2:256). It neutralizes the use of power over man's heart and mind. Allah allows no material power to control man's heart and mind. He protects man's conscience from compulsion. It is so because belief that is the result of compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief: that is why, if Muslims conquer an unbeliever physically, he has the right to adhere to his disbelief, and Muslims are bound to respect that and to let him be. One achievement of modernity has been its declaration of the freedom of faith; it is an article that is included in all modern constitutions. It asserts that man's faith is protected, that he may not be made to change his faith by force, but rather by persuasion. Now this principle, that force may not be the means to changing people's faith took root when some nations' physical strength reached a point where it could destroy the earth and all life upon it. This maximization of strength led to important and obvious results, although people's adhering to old habits, and the long tradition of yielding to force, continues to be operative, although their hold keeps weakening. Since the first atomic bomb was detonated more than fifty years back, a new state of things has started to take place, although the world does not seem to fully appreciate it, as the old language of threats is still in use: it is a language that is obsolete in practice, but is still in theory, opposite to many situations in which we assert an idea in theory, but do not act upon it in practice. Now after force has lost its theoretical basis, it has become a killing crime. That is why the big powers no longer fight among themselves and it has ceased to be an option among them: they know this well, and abide by it, too. Among the big powers, violence and fighting are no longer in use; but they are still the policy when they deal with the less fortunate parts of the world. In these other parts of the world, to which we belong, people still believe in force, that real change can be effected through compulsion. Let it be remembered, however, that once we, small powers, engage in violence, as we often do, the benefiting party will be the big powers. This is such a true rule that anyone, among the small powers, who tries to solve his problem by resorting to violence, will have sold his case to the big enemies; and that is so no matter if one happens to be the initiator of violence or not. As for the big powers, some do fall to be sure, but not through fighting, as happened to the former Soviet Union. It collapsed from within, not because of any external enemy who intervened in their life and brought about their collapse. We may also look at the other side of the coin: what happened to Japan, a nation that surrendered unconditionally as a result of the two atomic bombs dropped on it during the Second World War. And then, not long after that, you see the Japanese sitting, without possessing atomic weaponry, on a footing with the seven big powers of the world. There must be in this a lesson to learn how this happened without destructive weapons: the Japanese are human beings like us, and without even a Divine Book, not being Jews, Christians, or Muslims; and in this there is more reason to reflect and try to understand how it happened. Therefore we may say, Abdul-Jabbar, that when the Qur'an commands us to have ready against our enemy all the strength we can (8:60), the strength we need to take care of is no longer that of physical weaponry; we do know that, in the above verse Muslims were commanded to have steeds of war ready, but of course nobody would now consider having horses in stables in preparation for war, nor having spears and swords. Likewise, we no longer do we need to have ready tanks, atomic bombs nor Teton bombs. They are all obsolete. As long as man has the skill to control and to think can adopt other alternatives. For man is enabled by God to corrupt his soul, or to purify it; he is also enabled to control things. One effect of the obsolescence of the physical power's control of the intellect is the coming into existence of the European Union. It was not imposed with force – on the contrary, it came into existence in response to the elimination of physical conflict, the physical conflict which had long been adopted for the gaining of advantage and prestige. Modern Europe was not united by a Napoleon or a Hitler, though each had reached Russia and the Arab World: but one died by committing suicide, while the other died in exile. And now, when Europe unites, it is not on the basis of Germany above all, or France above all; it is rather on the basis of Germany is equal to any other member of the Union. It is on the basis of getting over all the arrogant boastfulness; it is by getting over the stinking chauvinism that the Messenger, peace be upon him, cautioned against: "Abandon that ethnic arrogance, for it stinks." I am not unaware of some of the objections to these ideas. Some will cite Israel, which adopts force, and has used it in establishing itself, in maintaining its existence and in guaranteeing its survival. Malek Bennabi used to compare Israel to the red cloth which is carried by a matador: a red cloth is carried to infuriate the bull, and the bull will butt at the cloth, unaware of the man who holds the cloth; in this way the matador can at the right time stab it. Those who attach their hopes to weapons are really doing what Israel was established for: It was established to distract our attention from our real woes. As I said, it was Malek Bennabi who gave me such a jolt when he rated Israel as not a primary but a secondary problem. From then, my understanding was improving, until the Second Gulf War came, and that was the last straw. It was an event that exposed all the shortcomings of Arabs and Muslims: in a minute, we forgot Israel, and turned against our own brethren. All the pre-Islamic culture came to the forefront, for the Arabs used then to attack their own kin with all their might. We suddenly thought that one Arab state was more dangerous for Arabs than Israel and its allies. Considerations like the above show that the Islamist's culture is the same as the secularist's, despite all their superficial differences. They are the same in their blind allegiances to a past that we have not brought under analysis, or to foreign systems that we do not comprehend, to systems that are really on their way to decadence and disintegration. The Islamists are not more perceptive than the secularists, nor are they more capable of conducting an investigation into things, but let us hope that the new generation will learn more as more experiences are accumulating. If the events of Afghanistan and Algeria are deplorable, the events in Turkey and Iran give us hopes that come rather as a surprise. We need to look sharp at the events in Iran and Turkey, and to interpret them in a mature way, and I personally have my own reading of those events. What happened in Iran is something new, unprecedented in the Muslim World. Until it happened, all the political changes in the Muslim World used to take place through an internal coup, through tribal or familial rivalry. The public, the common people were absent from the scenes. In some cases it was the military commanders who led the coup d'état. Iran's revolution was unlike any of the above: it was the masses' revolution, and the woman's before the man's. That was a major shift in perspective, a most radical change of events. It was such a great event that its greatness was perhaps why we did not appreciate it! Some merely said it was miraculous, some said it was a Divine act, that it cannot be analyzed with reference to the laws of this world. When the Shah issued his edicts of curfew, Khomeini commanded people to defy the Shah's command and go out into the streets, men and women. They had nothing in their hands but flowers to offer to soldiers. Women are more efficient in such a situation than men; nor does such procedure require any military training, nor any weapons: the only condition is that each individual announces that he/she is free in practicing his/her faith: I'll hold on to my faith, and I disbelieve in that other doctrine, so kill me if you like. And big numbers were actually killed, but there was always someone ready to replace the martyr. In that way, the Shah was expelled without any shot against him; no one was trying to assassinate him. That was the way for transferring the authority to the masses. They realized that no power could resist the people's power. That was a new discovery, a new power in the full sense of newness. It was not in need for the polling box as in Algeria; nor was it like Afghanistan, where they sought to isolate the woman at home. No internal or external power was able to stop the Iranian revolution. When people have consciousness no external power can suppress their power. And so, despite all the hue and cry, it was not possible to frustrate the Iranian revolution. It remained steadfast and assertive, despite all the deplorable experience with Iraq. Let me dream here, and let Abdul-Jabbar and the readers forgive me, that the Iranians were capable of dominating Iraq, if they had adhered to the same way they had used with the Shah, but they did not use the same way. But they will learn. The budding democracy of Iran will take root, God willing. The democratic challenge of Iran is picking speed; they prove that they are capable of conducting free elections, that two different candidates can compete, and that one can be chosen in a peaceful democratic way. The world had thought that though the Khomeini revolution succeeded, Iran would not succeed in its second test, a democratic transfer of authority, but it did succeed. Their progress towards democracy is remarkable, and it is replete with significance. The Iranian nation has enjoyed the sweet taste of success, and will not give up its democracy; the masses are determining their own destiny, and one only can wish them success. It is setting the mode for an Islamic community that its neighbors feel safe with: this is a capital that is invaluable, no money and no treasure are equal to this, to make your neighbor feel safe with you, that your neighbor is sure you will not stab him in the back, even if he does you a mischief, that you only work for his good. This is a new relationship that no troublemakers can spoil, and we hope that there are enough wise people to maintain it, in spite of the discordant voices. Similarly, the Turks, who had been the first Muslims to throw off Islamic rule, [though really a corrupt caliphate] – it is they themselves who now go ahead of other Muslim nations in challenging secularism with democracy. They proceed in steady steps, and that is a proof that the Almighty God will have His light grow into perfection, and what happens at a local scale will spread to a regional and international scale. Those who uphold isolation and war are becoming less and less, and those who oppose isolation and war are growing in number, and getting more steadfast. Allah did hint to the angels that man would get over mischief and spilling blood (the Qur'an, 2:30), and we have reason to believe that this is coming to be realized. Problems which seemed to have no solution are solvable now, without human sacrifices. I say that not only because I believe in the unseen, but on the basis of actual signs in the real world. And now, let's get back to the problem of Israel, a phenomenon that did its part in full, by distracting Muslims from their real obligations, from dealing with the huge problems that they have inherited over the centuries. One of the things that are not thought about, for instance, is that Arabs often talk about peace with Israel, although Israel does not have the bases for survival; they harp on peace with Israel, while they ignore the pressing issue of peace among ourselves. It is here that the work lies. Malek Bennabi used to say: When we begin to talk about colonisibility more than we talk about colonialism, then we are on the way to solving our problems. That the problem lies in us is asserted by God, by His Prophet, peace be upon him, by Adam, and even by the Devil – Allah says, as we recite in the Qur'an: "What! When a single disaster smites you, although ye smote your enemies with one twice as great, do you say: 'Whence is this?' Say to them: 'It is from yourselves;' " (3:165). Incidentally, the Qur'an is the only book that blames the victim more than it blames the oppressor or aggressor; it is so for the oppressor cannot inflict his oppression without our giving him the chance to do so; should we stop giving him the chance, he will just fall. As for the Prophet, peace be upon him, he says, in the course of a long tradition: "Let him who encounters a good outcome praise God for it; and let him who encounters an adverse outcome blame no one but himself." But we are still prepared to blame everyone and anyone, except ourselves. Adam, peace be upon him, having eaten, together with his wife, from the forbidden tree, and after Allah had reprimanded them: "Did I not forbid you that tree?" he replied, together with his wife: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls;" (7:22-23) They accepted to take the responsibility for their mistake, and therefore merited to be appointed viceroys in the earth. As for Satan, he will say to his followers on the Day of Judgment, as the Qur'an reports: "I had no authority over you except to call you, but ye listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls;" (14:22) In this connection, the historian Toynbee summed up history by saying that civilizations did not die like martyrs, but like suicide committers: it is only after civilizations have died that vultures and eagles, come upon the corpses of those civilizations and eat them. It is worth our while to reflect on what prevents us from considering peace among ourselves. We really have to look into that! There is a long history of wrangling and squabbling among us that blocks our considering the other alternative. I have personally often questioned people about that, and have always found it is merely that people are unable to imagine that we are capable of realizing peace among ourselves, a peace in which there is no loser, in which everyone is a winner: kings, presidents, princes, financiers, land-owners. No one will lose anything; indeed they will all gain. It is something that people in our part of the world cannot imagine, because they have a presupposition that problems may not be solved without eliminating the other, or grabbing what he has. The truth, however, is that in this new alternative no one will be a loser; all will be winners; and we can actually observe how this is happening on the earth, not in a remote galaxy. History is the best witness to the outcome of peaceful dealings and aggressive dealings. Therefore, the more Israel impedes peaceful efforts, the more we should solidify peace among ourselves, and blame ourselves for our mistakes, not blame each other. I address this not to politicians and statesmen, who are preoccupied with their immediate problems. I address the ordinary person, the ordinary man and woman. To them I say there is a solution in which there is no loser, all are winners. We have a presupposition inculcated in us, even before we learn to talk, that we need to eliminate some party to unite the Muslims. In this way we condone the stabbing in the back, and we extol the conduct of those who betray: the implication of our behavior is that to get over treason, the only way is to do further treason. The truth is that the right approach to eliminating wrongdoing is not to commit more wrongdoing, but to behave righteously. When I speak of peace among ourselves, I do not call to this in secret, but publicly. Is it a sin to call to this peace among ourselves? Only a guilty conscience may stand in the way to this objective. This is not even a call to democracy, for democracy is still a far cry, but at least let us begin with something within our reach. If we proceed with this, people will feel that there is room for an idea other than what is prevalent so far, that there are some who believe in this other option, who discuss it, and who meet to affirm it. It is a simple thing that I am calling to, so let us repeat it frequently enough until it becomes familiar to the ears of everybody. At present people say what many peoples used to say to the prophets as the Qur'an reports: "Never did we hear such a thing as he says among our ancestors of old;" (23:24). We should repeat until it becomes a quite familiar thing to people, and until they themselves say it. At least in this way it will settle into people's hearts that there can be peace and safety among Muslims and believers. How else can peace be realized? If that settles into our consciousness, then we shall hail those who contribute to the peace and safety among Arabs and Muslims, not those who want to unite the Arabs or Muslims with the sword. Let us remember how with a minimum of cooperation among Arabs during the 1973 war, they accomplished something: they felt that their oil belonged to them, and they felt the confidence of crossing the fear barrier. Let us remember on the other hand that when two Arab countries fell apart in the Gulf war, they lost their dignity and their money. Not after more than ten years can we sit together amicably. The road to peace is still open, but we need to have the concepts right in our minds and then to talk; we need to talk with full understanding and consciousness. At the moment, the way to peace is not evident even in theory, let alone its realization in practice. We need to explore the way of peace, and to pave that way, so that people may go along that way with confidence. People have certain preconceptions which are not voiced, but which are more operative than any written and signed contract: they have implicitly conspired that since the time Muslims lost the right guided state, and since they fell into a state of compulsion in politics (with the coming of the Umayyads), it was right for regaining that upright state to resort to compulsion and treachery. No one said that, as it is not right to be announced, but everyone had it in mind, and it was transmitted to everyone, until it has settled down as the most natural thing. Not until now can we dare face that implicit complicity; we do not recall it to consciousness to be healed of it, or to start to be healed of it. But we have really to get back to that right guided approach in understanding the words of the Lord when He says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion: uprightness stands out clear from error: whoever rejects taghoot 'the tyrannical transgressor' and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks;" (2:256). In the above verse when Allah says: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion,' this directive is indicative of what distinguishes uprightness from error or misguidance; that compulsion IS misguidance. That becomes more manifest when we go to the third clause, 'whoever rejects taghoot and believes in God …', for the taghoot believes in compulsion; indeed his life, survival, and very existence are based on compulsion. To reject that taghoot, and to believe in Allah, that is in Allah's religion, and to believe in His command to abstain from compulsion – that is grasping the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. Another aspect of that implicit and misguided complicity, something that has spread until it is taken to be for granted is that if truth and falsehood are given equal chance, falsehood will have the better of truth, that truth will be defeated, and people will choose falsehood, rather than truth. Now first of all this is mistrusting God; it is about an attitude like this that the Qur'an says: "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154) and it says: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost;" (41:23) And secondly, God says about truth and falsehood, that "truth has now arrived, and falsehood perished: for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish;" (17:81) The Qur'an never says that once falsehood arrives, truth will perish, but it is settled in our hearts that it is so. Somehow it has been inspired into our hearts over the centuries to dread falsehood in an unnatural and unwarranted degree. The Qur'an says: "Say: 'the truth has arrived, and falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything;" (34:49). And it says: "Nay, we hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish;" (21:18) It is mistrusting God; it is also mistrusting truth and Islam, when we suppose that if people are given the choice, they will abandon truth and Islam. It is in the third place mistrusting man, when we think that he is more inclined to evil than to goodness. But man does not have peace of heart except when he chooses goodness; it is when men sink into ignorance that their bad deeds will seem good in their eyes. Therefore, it is our duty to deliver the message in the clearest way. When things are quite manifest, then those who insist on adhering to falsehood, the condemned, will be a small minority. It is God's law that the majority of people will choose truth once it is made absolutely clear. [Translator's note: Mr. Sa'eed has skipped the reply to Question Two, without explicitly saying why. It seems that he assumed that he had said enough about it in the course of his answer to Question One.] [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 103 102 2009-08-23T09:45:39Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? '''A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that.''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. Another juncture is that of Muhammad Arkoun. Arkoun has the distinction of having freed himself of that tendency, prevalent in the Muslim World, to take things to be either faultless or worthless, where, as Malek Bennabi explains, things can be too easily shifted from one to the other category: how easily would a freedom-fighter be in a minute stigmatized as a traitor, or a believer as a heretic or apostate. My experience with Iqbal was very unlike that with Malek Bennabi, for Iqbal was a sufi (mystic) poet, who soared in the sky, debating with men, jinn, satans, imperialism and Redwan, Paradise's guard. Iqbal showed great insight in comprehending the truth, and he knew it. He said: My eyes can perceive the pulse of the stars/and the flow of the blood in the moon's vessels. He knew much about the world and about man, far above other Muslims. He said, in his poetic style: Man is a limb of God's will. It was Iqbal who awakened us to the fact that though the Qur'an and Islam emerged before the age of science, it was the Qur'an which heralded the age of science. It was Iqbal, too, who alerted us to the importance of the facts of the real world and human experience (the signs in Qur'anic diction): in his words, the Qur'an takes the observable world, and man's inner world, as sources of knowledge. He pointed this out through a verse from the Qur'an which states: "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53). He shed on this verse a light that shines more and more with the passage of time. Iqbal acknowledged that it was Jalal al-Deen al-Rumi who transformed him, from being an ordinary person into a new being. I also learned something else from the story he recounts about al-Rumi, who searched and searched for a certain man who inspired him, Shams al-Deen al-Tabreezee; but after his long search he realized that the inspiration that he sought was inside his soul. It was Iqbal, too, who appreciated the significance of the 'seal of prophethood', the fact that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last apostle of Allah's. I think we do not yet appreciate the full significance of this fact; but history will reveal its full weight. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the seal (last) of prophets, but how important is this fact? Now, the whole phenomenon of prophethood, from Noah until Muhammad, lasted just less than five thousand years; so how will the situation of mankind be after a million years? Iqbal notes in this connection: It was right that the prophethood should come to an end, because the signs (facts) of the world and the signs in our own souls have become a source of learning the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me know right from wrong when considering that old question about the Hanafite and Shafiite madhabs, schools of Islamic law. He said: the way to knowing the truth about doctrines, philosophies, religions, and cultures, is to observe the kind of man which any of these doctrines, etc. produces. Iqbal was physiologically short-sighted, but he proved to have such a far-reaching intellect when he helped me solve the problem of shari'ah, God's law – it was such a giant idea when he said: Allah's shari'ah is realized when justice is realized; whatever comes closer to justice is closer to Allah's shari'ah. As for the details of the law, they will vary depending on the age, the objective always being the realization of justice and beautiful dealings. I am not saying that there are no other first rate thinkers, but I'm saying that the above are the greatest thinkers I knew of. The common factor in all these thinkers is their giving first place to man and appreciating man. But Oh! In what darkness we grope, when we kill each other! Where is the light! Where is the paradigm, as Heidegger says? == == 102 100 2009-08-23T09:44:53Z Admin 1 Blanked the page wikitext text/x-wiki 100 99 2009-08-23T09:42:54Z Admin 1 moved [[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] to [[Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress?]] wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that. Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. Another juncture is that of Muhammad Arkoun. Arkoun has the distinction of having freed himself of that tendency, prevalent in the Muslim World, to take things to be either faultless or worthless, where, as Malek Bennabi explains, things can be too easily shifted from one to the other category: how easily would a freedom-fighter be in a minute stigmatized as a traitor, or a believer as a heretic or apostate. My experience with Iqbal was very unlike that with Malek Bennabi, for Iqbal was a sufi (mystic) poet, who soared in the sky, debating with men, jinn, satans, imperialism and Redwan, Paradise's guard. Iqbal showed great insight in comprehending the truth, and he knew it. He said: My eyes can perceive the pulse of the stars/and the flow of the blood in the moon's vessels. He knew much about the world and about man, far above other Muslims. He said, in his poetic style: Man is a limb of God's will. It was Iqbal who awakened us to the fact that though the Qur'an and Islam emerged before the age of science, it was the Qur'an which heralded the age of science. It was Iqbal, too, who alerted us to the importance of the facts of the real world and human experience (the signs in Qur'anic diction): in his words, the Qur'an takes the observable world, and man's inner world, as sources of knowledge. He pointed this out through a verse from the Qur'an which states: "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53). He shed on this verse a light that shines more and more with the passage of time. Iqbal acknowledged that it was Jalal al-Deen al-Rumi who transformed him, from being an ordinary person into a new being. I also learned something else from the story he recounts about al-Rumi, who searched and searched for a certain man who inspired him, Shams al-Deen al-Tabreezee; but after his long search he realized that the inspiration that he sought was inside his soul. It was Iqbal, too, who appreciated the significance of the 'seal of prophethood', the fact that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last apostle of Allah's. I think we do not yet appreciate the full significance of this fact; but history will reveal its full weight. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the seal (last) of prophets, but how important is this fact? Now, the whole phenomenon of prophethood, from Noah until Muhammad, lasted just less than five thousand years; so how will the situation of mankind be after a million years? Iqbal notes in this connection: It was right that the prophethood should come to an end, because the signs (facts) of the world and the signs in our own souls have become a source of learning the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me know right from wrong when considering that old question about the Hanafite and Shafiite madhabs, schools of Islamic law. He said: the way to knowing the truth about doctrines, philosophies, religions, and cultures, is to observe the kind of man which any of these doctrines, etc. produces. Iqbal was physiologically short-sighted, but he proved to have such a far-reaching intellect when he helped me solve the problem of shari'ah, God's law – it was such a giant idea when he said: Allah's shari'ah is realized when justice is realized; whatever comes closer to justice is closer to Allah's shari'ah. As for the details of the law, they will vary depending on the age, the objective always being the realization of justice and beautiful dealings. I am not saying that there are no other first rate thinkers, but I'm saying that the above are the greatest thinkers I knew of. The common factor in all these thinkers is their giving first place to man and appreciating man. But Oh! In what darkness we grope, when we kill each other! Where is the light! Where is the paradigm, as Heidegger says? == == So far, I think I have somehow attended to your first two questions, 1, the intellectual junctures, and 2, the intellectual elements. I was once a follower of the 'salafi' trend (following the example of the first generations of Islam), then I drew my inspiration from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and then it was Iqbal. Then I discovered Muhammad Arkoun, and that was a more demanding stage than any other, for when you are dealing with the West, it is not easy to see your way, and to detect the pitfalls. But I drew from Iqbal some strength. He used to say: Your civilization will keep tumbling and slipping, for a nest that is built on a fragile bough will not stay long; your fire does not dazzle my eyes, for I have chosen to follow Abraham's faith. Can we ever when dealing with the West adhere to the rule of "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (the Qur'an, 46:16)? Why should some of us see nothing of the West but its worst delusions and aberrations, while others see nothing but the opposite? It is right to say here that it is not only the means of transportation that the Westerners have invented, but they have invented a way of transferring rule without spilling blood: this latter innovation is far more worthy than the means of transportation. And while we are anxious to buy and buy vehicles ( buy rather than manufacture), we are not at all anxious to learn the transfer in politics and rule, the way rule can be transferred from person to person without spilling blood: not many of us believe in the power of the idea, that people can be persuaded rather than coerced; neither the secularist nor the pious believe in this. Though in the Western democracy the transfer of rule is tarnished by some deception and fraud to manipulate the voters, it is still not gained through intimidating people with the whip and iron and fire. Democracy is quite a new thing in the world, despite all the elementary forms that had appeared at various times in the past. Muslims had a certain form of free opinion at the time of the Upright Caliphs, and when they lost that Muslims felt in a vague way that something right was slipping away, and therefore some said, when Mu'awiyah was planning to have his son forced on people as ruler after him: "What are trying to do? Are you adopting the method of the czars, who when a czar dies, he is succeeded by a czar!" Muslims did feel that something great was being wasted, thought they did not quite understand the proper way. But mankind went beyond that, for as the Qur'an teaches us, and as I quoted above, God adds to creation as He pleases, and so how freedom and representation should be translated into an applied reality was developed and elaborated. Things do change. Modernity appeared in people's view of the universe, for at one time, and for so many centuries, men asserted that the sun orbited the earth, and when some declared that it was the other way round, that we were not at the center of the universe, many people were extremely alarmed and outraged: they felt something terrible would happen if man, and man's earth, were not at the center of the universe. Indeed, some people were prepared to die, or to send others to death, to keep the old idea intact. But the change was taking place in astronomy, and modernity was starting to take root, and our view of the universe was changing. Other things were happening, the steam engine, the combustion engine. Instead of the horse, the camel and the donkey, new means of transportation were introduced that the older generations had not dreamed of. The telescope enabled people to see what they never dreamed of seeing before; on the other hand the microscope showed people tiny particles that were never seen before: germs were seen that enabled men to discover the causes of epidemics; in this way cures for many diseases were discovered. And ever so much more sophistication is taking place. All started from Copernicus, and people can comprehend this; but the other revolution, that in the social, political, and human spheres is not yet appreciated. From observing history, one can notice a certain very curious phenomenon. In the past, kings seemed to be of huge stature, apparently there to stay for ever; and if a king was eliminated by assassination, then it was only his person who was eliminated. His same prestige was transferred to his successor. Also, the public in the past were taken to be an ignorant, worthless, a homogeneous mass; with no claim to any part at all in public affairs, apart from prostrating themselves before their monarch. And then, the astronomical revolution was followed by a social revolution, when kings dwindled and dwindled, until they are in the developed societies no more than relics from the past, physically preserved, but without any authority whatsoever. Power was being transferred to the people, very slowly, but very surely. This really is a move towards modernity, social modernity. Man is growing in stature; by which we mean that man's consciousness is growing, the more so as he learns more about history. One can recall the time when men offered human sacrifices, and how, when Abraham appeared, a stop was put to this offering of human sacrifices. It is right to see in the Islamic practices of offering an animal sacrifice during al-Adha Bairam, a declaration of the end of offering human sacrifices. It announces that humankind is developing and advancing. That with the advent of Islam a new epoch was arriving, and was being proclaimed in many ways. There is in the Qur'an the debate between Abraham and the tyrannical ruler, whom Abraham challenged to show any control over universe's laws (2:258.) That the unbeliever was nonplused is a reminder that the world is shocked when a new stage comes forth. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, announced during his 'farewell pilgrimage' the experience of Abraham, and he announced to all human beings: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No Arab is to be favored over a non-Arab, no white is to be favored over a black – except in piety." He added: Do not regress into wild life, spilling each other's blood." He also exhorted his audience to be kind to women, who were [at that time] confined at homes and wholly controlled by men. It was a new epoch of equity and the elimination of privileges, announced at least in theory. But the scientific transformation was slow, so slow, to take place. Am I straying away from the questions? Well, my justification is that the points are within the Islamic dilemma, and the human dilemma. I feel that the facts of the world are regaining to the texts their significance after they have been vitiated of it. It is relevant here to assert that the message of all the prophets is one and the same. No matter how we brand Christianity or Judaism as polytheistic or chauvinistic, the essence of all the divine religions is one and the same: they all revolve on monotheism which, as long as it remains intact, all other sins may be forgiven; but if it is marred, no act of devotion is accepted. We may read about that in the Qur'an: "For We assuredly sent amongst every people an apostles with the command, 'Serve God and eschew taghoot [the trespasser beyond all limits, the tyrant]' " (16:36) So let's remember the one message which was conveyed by each and every apostle, 'Serve God and eschew the taghhot'. Now in all the comments and exegeses on the Qur'an, I have never seen any adequate explanation of the word 'taghoot'. They merely render it as 'evil', 'Satan', or 'the idols'; while, if we do a little search about the derivatives of the word, for its root 'tagha', we find the Qur'an uses the word differently from what the commentators have taken it to be. We find for instance that God directs Moses to go to Pharaoh with these words, 'Go thou to Pharaoh, for he has indeed tagha [i.e. transgressed beyond all bounds.]' (76:17;) and we find, "[Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with …, and with …, ] And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these taghau [transgressed beyond bounds] in the land, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties: For thy Lord is like a guardian on a watch-tower." (89:10-14) No tyrant is held up in the Qur'an as the prototype of transgression and tyranny more than Pharaoh; not any name – apart from that of Allah – is mentioned in the Qur'an more often than that of Moses, the man who stood in the face of Pharaoh; and that in the greatest civilization of the ancient world. The Qur'an lets Pharaoh utter all he feels about the attitudes and nuances of the feelings of the oppressors, all that is publicly and privately uttered by this category as represented by their foremost archetype is recorded in the Qur'an. Moses is equally the model for challenging the tyrant; he keeps reminding his people of all they need to do to rid themselves of the submissive state to the transgressor. It must be revealing that the story of Moses and Pharaoh has been repeated in the Qur'an more than any other story, with varying details and lengths. It has definitely been given less than justice of investigation and analysis. It is to be noted that the issue of monotheism and polytheism does not focus on the divine aspect but on the attitude of individuals and communities: it is a human-social-political issue: it is concerned with putting right the relations among people – that God is One was not unknown to the Quraysh tribe which the Prophet, peace be on him, first addressed, exactly as now we say about God He is One. But still they rejected the message borne by the Messenger: the point of their dispute with the Messenger was that in that society some individuals were granted privileges not granted to the rest of society; some individuals were held to be above the law. The sort of community the Prophet, peace be upon him, was introducing, a society in which the law is applied to Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, in the same way as to any other man or woman, that was an unheard of society. Theirs was the same as the societies in our own time: we just need to cite the Veto Right in the foremost of all the organizations of our world to see that societies not only keep silent when this great transgression is committed, but those who are not endowed the Veto Right crave it bitterly. It shows that polytheism is still true of our time at the highest level in the world; the transgressors are the biggest powers in the world, and their transgression is endorsed by the smaller and smallest transgressors. Nobody stands up to denounce the Veto Right. It is for the above reason that Iqbal used to say that monotheism was not the opposite of multiple gods, but the opposite of 'shirk, i.e. taking some people to be above the law, not applying the law to some individuals.' When Pharaoh said: "I am your Lord, most high," (79:24), he meant that it was he, and no other person, who had the right to enact law, and to be himself exempt from the law. He said to his people, as the Qur'an reports: "I but point out to you that which I see myself, nor do I guide you but to the path of right;" (40:29); he said to his people: "No god do I know for you but myself!" (28:38); he said to Moses: "If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put thee in prison!" (26:29) and he said to his magicians, when they declared their converting to the new faith: "Believe ye in him before I give you permission? Surely he is your leader, who has taught you sorcery! But soon shall ye know! Be sure I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will cause you all to die on the cross!" (26:49-50).These events of history should teach us laws, in the same way as the chemist observes and experiments and draws out laws. The events of history point out how man builds up and destroys, that man is equal to establishing intelligent life, and is prone to ruin it: that was true in the past, and it is true at present. It is man's responsibility to do right: "Truly he succeeds that purifies [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it!" (91:9-10). If Pharaoh's sorcerers' ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66), there is similar magic now, when men now use the war-heads and missiles, assuming that they have control; they are indeed not better than Pharaoh's sorcerers. And we let ourselves be led into believing in the magic when we take those weapons to indicate that those who use them have control. Why do not we notice that all the atomic power of the former Soviet Union did not help in saving it from collapse? One lesson that we should have drawn is that as long as you give muscles rather than intellect your confidence, you are bound to fall, for you become a victim of your muscles. The prophets did better when they taught humankind a more extraordinary and revolutionary way of change in human relationships, a way of conducting human, social and political affairs in the most economical way, indeed without any cost to any party. The prophets reversed the equation adopted by many quarters: instead of a relationship based on muscular power, and on the threat of killing the other, instead of bragging: "I give life and death;" (the Qur'an, 2:258), it is in the prophets' way giving life and not death; instead of a relationship based on killing and counter-killing, it is a relationship based on holding back from killing. It is a radically different way of viewing things; it reverses matters completely; it utterly transforms the situation. That is so because instead of man being slave to man, he becomes a slave to the Lord of men. That is why the Qur'an does not say: "Kill the taghoot (the transgressor, the oppressor, the despot)"; but it rather says: "Those who eschew the taghoot and fall not into its worship, and turn to God in repentance, for them is good news: so announce the good news to My Servants;" (39:17) and it says: "God is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depth of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are taghoots: from light they lead them forth into the depths of darkness;" (2:257). Modernity first appeared in astronomy, and then it appeared in the social sphere. When someone started to write about 'Chosen Slavery', he meant that no one could enslave us without our consent; it meant that as long as we refused to be slaves no one could force slavery on us. And that is more true of great multitudes of people: no one can subject a great number of people to be enslaved without exercising some kind of magic or jugglery over them, exactly as the Pharaoh's magicians exercised it, when their ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66). Do you not see how a myriad of people are threatened with death, and they believe it! A magic no better than Pharaoh's magicians'. It is our responsibility to help people have consciousness enough to be freed from magic, any magic, not just one form of it. Our present writings bind people further to our chosen slavery. In view of ideas like the above I sometimes say that what the prophets taught, though it descended from heaven, has not yet reached the earth. What they taught was not killing people, and not killing the despot or the oppressor: it is rather to disobey the tyrant, if he commands you to kill; it is to hold back your hand in that case. Why has this point remained ignored and undiscussed; in the modern terminology, as used by Arkoun, it would be called unthought of, or even unthinkable. There was a time when it was impossible to think about an earth orbiting the sun: that was so according to the culture of a certain period, according to accepted concepts. Similarly, it is at this moment unthinkable that one refrains from killing if commanded to kill. How long will it take us to get out of our darkness? Bilal, Ammar, Sumayyah and Yaser, four companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, succeeded in getting out of obeying the oppressor and doing what he dictated; they simply held their hand back. And that is the real kernel of belief in the One God: to get out of being enslaved to the taghoot. That is why I say: instead of seeing the young Islamists being imprisoned or put to death or tortured for attempting to kill someone, I would prefer that they are tortured, put to death, or imprisoned because they have refused to kill. It is strange how we do not teach a Muslim youth not to kill Muslims! It is strange how we inspire him to kill the tyrant! How often in our history have we killed the tyrants, and the result has only been that their assassins turned themselves into tyrants. Will this simple fact be learned one day? All the armies of the world teach their soldiers to act on what they are commanded and to do so without objection: it is the commanding authority which bears the responsibility for the command. This is man's law; but Allah's law, belief in the One God, does not allow you to obey anyone when their command is contrary to God's command. From the first sura (chapter) that was revealed to the Prophet we learn to disobey an unjust command: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … Nay, heed him not: but bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer to God!" (96:9-19) It has been heartening to hear recently how more than thirty senior officers in the Turkish army were expelled for their 'indiscipline': they dared to perform their prayers in their barracks in public. When you insist on doing your prayer in defiance of the taghoot, you will learn, and you will inspire others to learn, to disobey him when he commands you to kill Muslims. Others are waiting for you to lead the way, so do not let them down: be the first to disobey the tyrant. Will we not learn when to disobey tyrants? They will go on commanding their soldiers to kill as long as they find soldiers who say: "Yes, Sir!" But Bilal, who technically was considered a slave, did better. He was owned by a master, but he learned that there was another Master, who had more right to be obeyed. As long his earthly master commanded that which did not contradict his Divine Master, he obeyed him; but when his earthly master commanded that which contradicted the commands of his Divine Master, then no obedience was due to the former. He challenged them in the same way Pharaoh's magicians said to their master: "decree whatever thou desirest to decree: for thou canst only decree touching the life of this world;" (the Qur'an, 20:72). The issue of monotheism and polytheism is at present vague and dim: how can it be otherwise when we ourselves, not having had matured in relation to this issue, do not bear it to people in the proper way? I did quote above the prophets' message, one and all, as the Qur'an reports: "Serve Allah, and eschew the taghoot 'the transgressor beyond all bounds'!" (16:36) About this message, the Qur'an also says, addressing Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him: "it has already been revealed to thee – as it was to those before thee – 'if thou were to join gods with God, truly fruitless will be thy work in life, and thou wilt surely be in the ranks of those who lose all good' " (39:65). It is the easiest thing to observe, in connection with the last verse, how we, Muslims, are losers – who indeed is a bigger loser than we are in the whole world! How, when no day passes but we have poured on our heads severe catastrophes that humiliate us, so that we no longer can raise our head, neither before others, nor even in private. I know that I view the world and understand it in a way different from what many view and understand. But this helps me see the light of the Qur'an. I feel that my conception helps me confront the world and announce what I have to say. I feel this approach makes the laws of the world match the verses of the Qur'an. We realize that the laws of the world and the verses of the Qur'an proceed from the same Source, and when they work together there is great light, and they will give man a great peace. Take for instance the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion:" (2:256). It neutralizes the use of power over man's heart and mind. Allah allows no material power to control man's heart and mind. He protects man's conscience from compulsion. It is so because belief that is the result of compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief: that is why, if Muslims conquer an unbeliever physically, he has the right to adhere to his disbelief, and Muslims are bound to respect that and to let him be. One achievement of modernity has been its declaration of the freedom of faith; it is an article that is included in all modern constitutions. It asserts that man's faith is protected, that he may not be made to change his faith by force, but rather by persuasion. Now this principle, that force may not be the means to changing people's faith took root when some nations' physical strength reached a point where it could destroy the earth and all life upon it. This maximization of strength led to important and obvious results, although people's adhering to old habits, and the long tradition of yielding to force, continues to be operative, although their hold keeps weakening. Since the first atomic bomb was detonated more than fifty years back, a new state of things has started to take place, although the world does not seem to fully appreciate it, as the old language of threats is still in use: it is a language that is obsolete in practice, but is still in theory, opposite to many situations in which we assert an idea in theory, but do not act upon it in practice. Now after force has lost its theoretical basis, it has become a killing crime. That is why the big powers no longer fight among themselves and it has ceased to be an option among them: they know this well, and abide by it, too. Among the big powers, violence and fighting are no longer in use; but they are still the policy when they deal with the less fortunate parts of the world. In these other parts of the world, to which we belong, people still believe in force, that real change can be effected through compulsion. Let it be remembered, however, that once we, small powers, engage in violence, as we often do, the benefiting party will be the big powers. This is such a true rule that anyone, among the small powers, who tries to solve his problem by resorting to violence, will have sold his case to the big enemies; and that is so no matter if one happens to be the initiator of violence or not. As for the big powers, some do fall to be sure, but not through fighting, as happened to the former Soviet Union. It collapsed from within, not because of any external enemy who intervened in their life and brought about their collapse. We may also look at the other side of the coin: what happened to Japan, a nation that surrendered unconditionally as a result of the two atomic bombs dropped on it during the Second World War. And then, not long after that, you see the Japanese sitting, without possessing atomic weaponry, on a footing with the seven big powers of the world. There must be in this a lesson to learn how this happened without destructive weapons: the Japanese are human beings like us, and without even a Divine Book, not being Jews, Christians, or Muslims; and in this there is more reason to reflect and try to understand how it happened. Therefore we may say, Abdul-Jabbar, that when the Qur'an commands us to have ready against our enemy all the strength we can (8:60), the strength we need to take care of is no longer that of physical weaponry; we do know that, in the above verse Muslims were commanded to have steeds of war ready, but of course nobody would now consider having horses in stables in preparation for war, nor having spears and swords. Likewise, we no longer do we need to have ready tanks, atomic bombs nor Teton bombs. They are all obsolete. As long as man has the skill to control and to think can adopt other alternatives. For man is enabled by God to corrupt his soul, or to purify it; he is also enabled to control things. One effect of the obsolescence of the physical power's control of the intellect is the coming into existence of the European Union. It was not imposed with force – on the contrary, it came into existence in response to the elimination of physical conflict, the physical conflict which had long been adopted for the gaining of advantage and prestige. Modern Europe was not united by a Napoleon or a Hitler, though each had reached Russia and the Arab World: but one died by committing suicide, while the other died in exile. And now, when Europe unites, it is not on the basis of Germany above all, or France above all; it is rather on the basis of Germany is equal to any other member of the Union. It is on the basis of getting over all the arrogant boastfulness; it is by getting over the stinking chauvinism that the Messenger, peace be upon him, cautioned against: "Abandon that ethnic arrogance, for it stinks." I am not unaware of some of the objections to these ideas. Some will cite Israel, which adopts force, and has used it in establishing itself, in maintaining its existence and in guaranteeing its survival. Malek Bennabi used to compare Israel to the red cloth which is carried by a matador: a red cloth is carried to infuriate the bull, and the bull will butt at the cloth, unaware of the man who holds the cloth; in this way the matador can at the right time stab it. Those who attach their hopes to weapons are really doing what Israel was established for: It was established to distract our attention from our real woes. As I said, it was Malek Bennabi who gave me such a jolt when he rated Israel as not a primary but a secondary problem. From then, my understanding was improving, until the Second Gulf War came, and that was the last straw. It was an event that exposed all the shortcomings of Arabs and Muslims: in a minute, we forgot Israel, and turned against our own brethren. All the pre-Islamic culture came to the forefront, for the Arabs used then to attack their own kin with all their might. We suddenly thought that one Arab state was more dangerous for Arabs than Israel and its allies. Considerations like the above show that the Islamist's culture is the same as the secularist's, despite all their superficial differences. They are the same in their blind allegiances to a past that we have not brought under analysis, or to foreign systems that we do not comprehend, to systems that are really on their way to decadence and disintegration. The Islamists are not more perceptive than the secularists, nor are they more capable of conducting an investigation into things, but let us hope that the new generation will learn more as more experiences are accumulating. If the events of Afghanistan and Algeria are deplorable, the events in Turkey and Iran give us hopes that come rather as a surprise. We need to look sharp at the events in Iran and Turkey, and to interpret them in a mature way, and I personally have my own reading of those events. What happened in Iran is something new, unprecedented in the Muslim World. Until it happened, all the political changes in the Muslim World used to take place through an internal coup, through tribal or familial rivalry. The public, the common people were absent from the scenes. In some cases it was the military commanders who led the coup d'état. Iran's revolution was unlike any of the above: it was the masses' revolution, and the woman's before the man's. That was a major shift in perspective, a most radical change of events. It was such a great event that its greatness was perhaps why we did not appreciate it! Some merely said it was miraculous, some said it was a Divine act, that it cannot be analyzed with reference to the laws of this world. When the Shah issued his edicts of curfew, Khomeini commanded people to defy the Shah's command and go out into the streets, men and women. They had nothing in their hands but flowers to offer to soldiers. Women are more efficient in such a situation than men; nor does such procedure require any military training, nor any weapons: the only condition is that each individual announces that he/she is free in practicing his/her faith: I'll hold on to my faith, and I disbelieve in that other doctrine, so kill me if you like. And big numbers were actually killed, but there was always someone ready to replace the martyr. In that way, the Shah was expelled without any shot against him; no one was trying to assassinate him. That was the way for transferring the authority to the masses. They realized that no power could resist the people's power. That was a new discovery, a new power in the full sense of newness. It was not in need for the polling box as in Algeria; nor was it like Afghanistan, where they sought to isolate the woman at home. No internal or external power was able to stop the Iranian revolution. When people have consciousness no external power can suppress their power. And so, despite all the hue and cry, it was not possible to frustrate the Iranian revolution. It remained steadfast and assertive, despite all the deplorable experience with Iraq. Let me dream here, and let Abdul-Jabbar and the readers forgive me, that the Iranians were capable of dominating Iraq, if they had adhered to the same way they had used with the Shah, but they did not use the same way. But they will learn. The budding democracy of Iran will take root, God willing. The democratic challenge of Iran is picking speed; they prove that they are capable of conducting free elections, that two different candidates can compete, and that one can be chosen in a peaceful democratic way. The world had thought that though the Khomeini revolution succeeded, Iran would not succeed in its second test, a democratic transfer of authority, but it did succeed. Their progress towards democracy is remarkable, and it is replete with significance. The Iranian nation has enjoyed the sweet taste of success, and will not give up its democracy; the masses are determining their own destiny, and one only can wish them success. It is setting the mode for an Islamic community that its neighbors feel safe with: this is a capital that is invaluable, no money and no treasure are equal to this, to make your neighbor feel safe with you, that your neighbor is sure you will not stab him in the back, even if he does you a mischief, that you only work for his good. This is a new relationship that no troublemakers can spoil, and we hope that there are enough wise people to maintain it, in spite of the discordant voices. Similarly, the Turks, who had been the first Muslims to throw off Islamic rule, [though really a corrupt caliphate] – it is they themselves who now go ahead of other Muslim nations in challenging secularism with democracy. They proceed in steady steps, and that is a proof that the Almighty God will have His light grow into perfection, and what happens at a local scale will spread to a regional and international scale. Those who uphold isolation and war are becoming less and less, and those who oppose isolation and war are growing in number, and getting more steadfast. Allah did hint to the angels that man would get over mischief and spilling blood (the Qur'an, 2:30), and we have reason to believe that this is coming to be realized. Problems which seemed to have no solution are solvable now, without human sacrifices. I say that not only because I believe in the unseen, but on the basis of actual signs in the real world. And now, let's get back to the problem of Israel, a phenomenon that did its part in full, by distracting Muslims from their real obligations, from dealing with the huge problems that they have inherited over the centuries. One of the things that are not thought about, for instance, is that Arabs often talk about peace with Israel, although Israel does not have the bases for survival; they harp on peace with Israel, while they ignore the pressing issue of peace among ourselves. It is here that the work lies. Malek Bennabi used to say: When we begin to talk about colonisibility more than we talk about colonialism, then we are on the way to solving our problems. That the problem lies in us is asserted by God, by His Prophet, peace be upon him, by Adam, and even by the Devil – Allah says, as we recite in the Qur'an: "What! When a single disaster smites you, although ye smote your enemies with one twice as great, do you say: 'Whence is this?' Say to them: 'It is from yourselves;' " (3:165). Incidentally, the Qur'an is the only book that blames the victim more than it blames the oppressor or aggressor; it is so for the oppressor cannot inflict his oppression without our giving him the chance to do so; should we stop giving him the chance, he will just fall. As for the Prophet, peace be upon him, he says, in the course of a long tradition: "Let him who encounters a good outcome praise God for it; and let him who encounters an adverse outcome blame no one but himself." But we are still prepared to blame everyone and anyone, except ourselves. Adam, peace be upon him, having eaten, together with his wife, from the forbidden tree, and after Allah had reprimanded them: "Did I not forbid you that tree?" he replied, together with his wife: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls;" (7:22-23) They accepted to take the responsibility for their mistake, and therefore merited to be appointed viceroys in the earth. As for Satan, he will say to his followers on the Day of Judgment, as the Qur'an reports: "I had no authority over you except to call you, but ye listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls;" (14:22) In this connection, the historian Toynbee summed up history by saying that civilizations did not die like martyrs, but like suicide committers: it is only after civilizations have died that vultures and eagles, come upon the corpses of those civilizations and eat them. It is worth our while to reflect on what prevents us from considering peace among ourselves. We really have to look into that! There is a long history of wrangling and squabbling among us that blocks our considering the other alternative. I have personally often questioned people about that, and have always found it is merely that people are unable to imagine that we are capable of realizing peace among ourselves, a peace in which there is no loser, in which everyone is a winner: kings, presidents, princes, financiers, land-owners. No one will lose anything; indeed they will all gain. It is something that people in our part of the world cannot imagine, because they have a presupposition that problems may not be solved without eliminating the other, or grabbing what he has. The truth, however, is that in this new alternative no one will be a loser; all will be winners; and we can actually observe how this is happening on the earth, not in a remote galaxy. History is the best witness to the outcome of peaceful dealings and aggressive dealings. Therefore, the more Israel impedes peaceful efforts, the more we should solidify peace among ourselves, and blame ourselves for our mistakes, not blame each other. I address this not to politicians and statesmen, who are preoccupied with their immediate problems. I address the ordinary person, the ordinary man and woman. To them I say there is a solution in which there is no loser, all are winners. We have a presupposition inculcated in us, even before we learn to talk, that we need to eliminate some party to unite the Muslims. In this way we condone the stabbing in the back, and we extol the conduct of those who betray: the implication of our behavior is that to get over treason, the only way is to do further treason. The truth is that the right approach to eliminating wrongdoing is not to commit more wrongdoing, but to behave righteously. When I speak of peace among ourselves, I do not call to this in secret, but publicly. Is it a sin to call to this peace among ourselves? Only a guilty conscience may stand in the way to this objective. This is not even a call to democracy, for democracy is still a far cry, but at least let us begin with something within our reach. If we proceed with this, people will feel that there is room for an idea other than what is prevalent so far, that there are some who believe in this other option, who discuss it, and who meet to affirm it. It is a simple thing that I am calling to, so let us repeat it frequently enough until it becomes familiar to the ears of everybody. At present people say what many peoples used to say to the prophets as the Qur'an reports: "Never did we hear such a thing as he says among our ancestors of old;" (23:24). We should repeat until it becomes a quite familiar thing to people, and until they themselves say it. At least in this way it will settle into people's hearts that there can be peace and safety among Muslims and believers. How else can peace be realized? If that settles into our consciousness, then we shall hail those who contribute to the peace and safety among Arabs and Muslims, not those who want to unite the Arabs or Muslims with the sword. Let us remember how with a minimum of cooperation among Arabs during the 1973 war, they accomplished something: they felt that their oil belonged to them, and they felt the confidence of crossing the fear barrier. Let us remember on the other hand that when two Arab countries fell apart in the Gulf war, they lost their dignity and their money. Not after more than ten years can we sit together amicably. The road to peace is still open, but we need to have the concepts right in our minds and then to talk; we need to talk with full understanding and consciousness. At the moment, the way to peace is not evident even in theory, let alone its realization in practice. We need to explore the way of peace, and to pave that way, so that people may go along that way with confidence. People have certain preconceptions which are not voiced, but which are more operative than any written and signed contract: they have implicitly conspired that since the time Muslims lost the right guided state, and since they fell into a state of compulsion in politics (with the coming of the Umayyads), it was right for regaining that upright state to resort to compulsion and treachery. No one said that, as it is not right to be announced, but everyone had it in mind, and it was transmitted to everyone, until it has settled down as the most natural thing. Not until now can we dare face that implicit complicity; we do not recall it to consciousness to be healed of it, or to start to be healed of it. But we have really to get back to that right guided approach in understanding the words of the Lord when He says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion: uprightness stands out clear from error: whoever rejects taghoot 'the tyrannical transgressor' and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks;" (2:256). In the above verse when Allah says: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion,' this directive is indicative of what distinguishes uprightness from error or misguidance; that compulsion IS misguidance. That becomes more manifest when we go to the third clause, 'whoever rejects taghoot and believes in God …', for the taghoot believes in compulsion; indeed his life, survival, and very existence are based on compulsion. To reject that taghoot, and to believe in Allah, that is in Allah's religion, and to believe in His command to abstain from compulsion – that is grasping the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. Another aspect of that implicit and misguided complicity, something that has spread until it is taken to be for granted is that if truth and falsehood are given equal chance, falsehood will have the better of truth, that truth will be defeated, and people will choose falsehood, rather than truth. Now first of all this is mistrusting God; it is about an attitude like this that the Qur'an says: "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154) and it says: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost;" (41:23) And secondly, God says about truth and falsehood, that "truth has now arrived, and falsehood perished: for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish;" (17:81) The Qur'an never says that once falsehood arrives, truth will perish, but it is settled in our hearts that it is so. Somehow it has been inspired into our hearts over the centuries to dread falsehood in an unnatural and unwarranted degree. The Qur'an says: "Say: 'the truth has arrived, and falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything;" (34:49). And it says: "Nay, we hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish;" (21:18) It is mistrusting God; it is also mistrusting truth and Islam, when we suppose that if people are given the choice, they will abandon truth and Islam. It is in the third place mistrusting man, when we think that he is more inclined to evil than to goodness. But man does not have peace of heart except when he chooses goodness; it is when men sink into ignorance that their bad deeds will seem good in their eyes. Therefore, it is our duty to deliver the message in the clearest way. When things are quite manifest, then those who insist on adhering to falsehood, the condemned, will be a small minority. It is God's law that the majority of people will choose truth once it is made absolutely clear. [Translator's note: Mr. Sa'eed has skipped the reply to Question Two, without explicitly saying why. It seems that he assumed that he had said enough about it in the course of his answer to Question One.] 99 98 2009-08-23T09:42:07Z Admin 1 /* 8 */ wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that. Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. Another juncture is that of Muhammad Arkoun. Arkoun has the distinction of having freed himself of that tendency, prevalent in the Muslim World, to take things to be either faultless or worthless, where, as Malek Bennabi explains, things can be too easily shifted from one to the other category: how easily would a freedom-fighter be in a minute stigmatized as a traitor, or a believer as a heretic or apostate. My experience with Iqbal was very unlike that with Malek Bennabi, for Iqbal was a sufi (mystic) poet, who soared in the sky, debating with men, jinn, satans, imperialism and Redwan, Paradise's guard. Iqbal showed great insight in comprehending the truth, and he knew it. He said: My eyes can perceive the pulse of the stars/and the flow of the blood in the moon's vessels. He knew much about the world and about man, far above other Muslims. He said, in his poetic style: Man is a limb of God's will. It was Iqbal who awakened us to the fact that though the Qur'an and Islam emerged before the age of science, it was the Qur'an which heralded the age of science. It was Iqbal, too, who alerted us to the importance of the facts of the real world and human experience (the signs in Qur'anic diction): in his words, the Qur'an takes the observable world, and man's inner world, as sources of knowledge. He pointed this out through a verse from the Qur'an which states: "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53). He shed on this verse a light that shines more and more with the passage of time. Iqbal acknowledged that it was Jalal al-Deen al-Rumi who transformed him, from being an ordinary person into a new being. I also learned something else from the story he recounts about al-Rumi, who searched and searched for a certain man who inspired him, Shams al-Deen al-Tabreezee; but after his long search he realized that the inspiration that he sought was inside his soul. It was Iqbal, too, who appreciated the significance of the 'seal of prophethood', the fact that Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last apostle of Allah's. I think we do not yet appreciate the full significance of this fact; but history will reveal its full weight. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the seal (last) of prophets, but how important is this fact? Now, the whole phenomenon of prophethood, from Noah until Muhammad, lasted just less than five thousand years; so how will the situation of mankind be after a million years? Iqbal notes in this connection: It was right that the prophethood should come to an end, because the signs (facts) of the world and the signs in our own souls have become a source of learning the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me know right from wrong when considering that old question about the Hanafite and Shafiite madhabs, schools of Islamic law. He said: the way to knowing the truth about doctrines, philosophies, religions, and cultures, is to observe the kind of man which any of these doctrines, etc. produces. Iqbal was physiologically short-sighted, but he proved to have such a far-reaching intellect when he helped me solve the problem of shari'ah, God's law – it was such a giant idea when he said: Allah's shari'ah is realized when justice is realized; whatever comes closer to justice is closer to Allah's shari'ah. As for the details of the law, they will vary depending on the age, the objective always being the realization of justice and beautiful dealings. I am not saying that there are no other first rate thinkers, but I'm saying that the above are the greatest thinkers I knew of. The common factor in all these thinkers is their giving first place to man and appreciating man. But Oh! In what darkness we grope, when we kill each other! Where is the light! Where is the paradigm, as Heidegger says? == == So far, I think I have somehow attended to your first two questions, 1, the intellectual junctures, and 2, the intellectual elements. I was once a follower of the 'salafi' trend (following the example of the first generations of Islam), then I drew my inspiration from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and then it was Iqbal. Then I discovered Muhammad Arkoun, and that was a more demanding stage than any other, for when you are dealing with the West, it is not easy to see your way, and to detect the pitfalls. But I drew from Iqbal some strength. He used to say: Your civilization will keep tumbling and slipping, for a nest that is built on a fragile bough will not stay long; your fire does not dazzle my eyes, for I have chosen to follow Abraham's faith. Can we ever when dealing with the West adhere to the rule of "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (the Qur'an, 46:16)? Why should some of us see nothing of the West but its worst delusions and aberrations, while others see nothing but the opposite? It is right to say here that it is not only the means of transportation that the Westerners have invented, but they have invented a way of transferring rule without spilling blood: this latter innovation is far more worthy than the means of transportation. And while we are anxious to buy and buy vehicles ( buy rather than manufacture), we are not at all anxious to learn the transfer in politics and rule, the way rule can be transferred from person to person without spilling blood: not many of us believe in the power of the idea, that people can be persuaded rather than coerced; neither the secularist nor the pious believe in this. Though in the Western democracy the transfer of rule is tarnished by some deception and fraud to manipulate the voters, it is still not gained through intimidating people with the whip and iron and fire. Democracy is quite a new thing in the world, despite all the elementary forms that had appeared at various times in the past. Muslims had a certain form of free opinion at the time of the Upright Caliphs, and when they lost that Muslims felt in a vague way that something right was slipping away, and therefore some said, when Mu'awiyah was planning to have his son forced on people as ruler after him: "What are trying to do? Are you adopting the method of the czars, who when a czar dies, he is succeeded by a czar!" Muslims did feel that something great was being wasted, thought they did not quite understand the proper way. But mankind went beyond that, for as the Qur'an teaches us, and as I quoted above, God adds to creation as He pleases, and so how freedom and representation should be translated into an applied reality was developed and elaborated. Things do change. Modernity appeared in people's view of the universe, for at one time, and for so many centuries, men asserted that the sun orbited the earth, and when some declared that it was the other way round, that we were not at the center of the universe, many people were extremely alarmed and outraged: they felt something terrible would happen if man, and man's earth, were not at the center of the universe. Indeed, some people were prepared to die, or to send others to death, to keep the old idea intact. But the change was taking place in astronomy, and modernity was starting to take root, and our view of the universe was changing. Other things were happening, the steam engine, the combustion engine. Instead of the horse, the camel and the donkey, new means of transportation were introduced that the older generations had not dreamed of. The telescope enabled people to see what they never dreamed of seeing before; on the other hand the microscope showed people tiny particles that were never seen before: germs were seen that enabled men to discover the causes of epidemics; in this way cures for many diseases were discovered. And ever so much more sophistication is taking place. All started from Copernicus, and people can comprehend this; but the other revolution, that in the social, political, and human spheres is not yet appreciated. From observing history, one can notice a certain very curious phenomenon. In the past, kings seemed to be of huge stature, apparently there to stay for ever; and if a king was eliminated by assassination, then it was only his person who was eliminated. His same prestige was transferred to his successor. Also, the public in the past were taken to be an ignorant, worthless, a homogeneous mass; with no claim to any part at all in public affairs, apart from prostrating themselves before their monarch. And then, the astronomical revolution was followed by a social revolution, when kings dwindled and dwindled, until they are in the developed societies no more than relics from the past, physically preserved, but without any authority whatsoever. Power was being transferred to the people, very slowly, but very surely. This really is a move towards modernity, social modernity. Man is growing in stature; by which we mean that man's consciousness is growing, the more so as he learns more about history. One can recall the time when men offered human sacrifices, and how, when Abraham appeared, a stop was put to this offering of human sacrifices. It is right to see in the Islamic practices of offering an animal sacrifice during al-Adha Bairam, a declaration of the end of offering human sacrifices. It announces that humankind is developing and advancing. That with the advent of Islam a new epoch was arriving, and was being proclaimed in many ways. There is in the Qur'an the debate between Abraham and the tyrannical ruler, whom Abraham challenged to show any control over universe's laws (2:258.) That the unbeliever was nonplused is a reminder that the world is shocked when a new stage comes forth. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, announced during his 'farewell pilgrimage' the experience of Abraham, and he announced to all human beings: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No Arab is to be favored over a non-Arab, no white is to be favored over a black – except in piety." He added: Do not regress into wild life, spilling each other's blood." He also exhorted his audience to be kind to women, who were [at that time] confined at homes and wholly controlled by men. It was a new epoch of equity and the elimination of privileges, announced at least in theory. But the scientific transformation was slow, so slow, to take place. Am I straying away from the questions? Well, my justification is that the points are within the Islamic dilemma, and the human dilemma. I feel that the facts of the world are regaining to the texts their significance after they have been vitiated of it. It is relevant here to assert that the message of all the prophets is one and the same. No matter how we brand Christianity or Judaism as polytheistic or chauvinistic, the essence of all the divine religions is one and the same: they all revolve on monotheism which, as long as it remains intact, all other sins may be forgiven; but if it is marred, no act of devotion is accepted. We may read about that in the Qur'an: "For We assuredly sent amongst every people an apostles with the command, 'Serve God and eschew taghoot [the trespasser beyond all limits, the tyrant]' " (16:36) So let's remember the one message which was conveyed by each and every apostle, 'Serve God and eschew the taghhot'. Now in all the comments and exegeses on the Qur'an, I have never seen any adequate explanation of the word 'taghoot'. They merely render it as 'evil', 'Satan', or 'the idols'; while, if we do a little search about the derivatives of the word, for its root 'tagha', we find the Qur'an uses the word differently from what the commentators have taken it to be. We find for instance that God directs Moses to go to Pharaoh with these words, 'Go thou to Pharaoh, for he has indeed tagha [i.e. transgressed beyond all bounds.]' (76:17;) and we find, "[Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with …, and with …, ] And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these taghau [transgressed beyond bounds] in the land, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties: For thy Lord is like a guardian on a watch-tower." (89:10-14) No tyrant is held up in the Qur'an as the prototype of transgression and tyranny more than Pharaoh; not any name – apart from that of Allah – is mentioned in the Qur'an more often than that of Moses, the man who stood in the face of Pharaoh; and that in the greatest civilization of the ancient world. The Qur'an lets Pharaoh utter all he feels about the attitudes and nuances of the feelings of the oppressors, all that is publicly and privately uttered by this category as represented by their foremost archetype is recorded in the Qur'an. Moses is equally the model for challenging the tyrant; he keeps reminding his people of all they need to do to rid themselves of the submissive state to the transgressor. It must be revealing that the story of Moses and Pharaoh has been repeated in the Qur'an more than any other story, with varying details and lengths. It has definitely been given less than justice of investigation and analysis. It is to be noted that the issue of monotheism and polytheism does not focus on the divine aspect but on the attitude of individuals and communities: it is a human-social-political issue: it is concerned with putting right the relations among people – that God is One was not unknown to the Quraysh tribe which the Prophet, peace be on him, first addressed, exactly as now we say about God He is One. But still they rejected the message borne by the Messenger: the point of their dispute with the Messenger was that in that society some individuals were granted privileges not granted to the rest of society; some individuals were held to be above the law. The sort of community the Prophet, peace be upon him, was introducing, a society in which the law is applied to Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, in the same way as to any other man or woman, that was an unheard of society. Theirs was the same as the societies in our own time: we just need to cite the Veto Right in the foremost of all the organizations of our world to see that societies not only keep silent when this great transgression is committed, but those who are not endowed the Veto Right crave it bitterly. It shows that polytheism is still true of our time at the highest level in the world; the transgressors are the biggest powers in the world, and their transgression is endorsed by the smaller and smallest transgressors. Nobody stands up to denounce the Veto Right. It is for the above reason that Iqbal used to say that monotheism was not the opposite of multiple gods, but the opposite of 'shirk, i.e. taking some people to be above the law, not applying the law to some individuals.' When Pharaoh said: "I am your Lord, most high," (79:24), he meant that it was he, and no other person, who had the right to enact law, and to be himself exempt from the law. He said to his people, as the Qur'an reports: "I but point out to you that which I see myself, nor do I guide you but to the path of right;" (40:29); he said to his people: "No god do I know for you but myself!" (28:38); he said to Moses: "If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put thee in prison!" (26:29) and he said to his magicians, when they declared their converting to the new faith: "Believe ye in him before I give you permission? Surely he is your leader, who has taught you sorcery! But soon shall ye know! Be sure I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will cause you all to die on the cross!" (26:49-50).These events of history should teach us laws, in the same way as the chemist observes and experiments and draws out laws. The events of history point out how man builds up and destroys, that man is equal to establishing intelligent life, and is prone to ruin it: that was true in the past, and it is true at present. It is man's responsibility to do right: "Truly he succeeds that purifies [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it!" (91:9-10). If Pharaoh's sorcerers' ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66), there is similar magic now, when men now use the war-heads and missiles, assuming that they have control; they are indeed not better than Pharaoh's sorcerers. And we let ourselves be led into believing in the magic when we take those weapons to indicate that those who use them have control. Why do not we notice that all the atomic power of the former Soviet Union did not help in saving it from collapse? One lesson that we should have drawn is that as long as you give muscles rather than intellect your confidence, you are bound to fall, for you become a victim of your muscles. The prophets did better when they taught humankind a more extraordinary and revolutionary way of change in human relationships, a way of conducting human, social and political affairs in the most economical way, indeed without any cost to any party. The prophets reversed the equation adopted by many quarters: instead of a relationship based on muscular power, and on the threat of killing the other, instead of bragging: "I give life and death;" (the Qur'an, 2:258), it is in the prophets' way giving life and not death; instead of a relationship based on killing and counter-killing, it is a relationship based on holding back from killing. It is a radically different way of viewing things; it reverses matters completely; it utterly transforms the situation. That is so because instead of man being slave to man, he becomes a slave to the Lord of men. That is why the Qur'an does not say: "Kill the taghoot (the transgressor, the oppressor, the despot)"; but it rather says: "Those who eschew the taghoot and fall not into its worship, and turn to God in repentance, for them is good news: so announce the good news to My Servants;" (39:17) and it says: "God is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depth of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are taghoots: from light they lead them forth into the depths of darkness;" (2:257). Modernity first appeared in astronomy, and then it appeared in the social sphere. When someone started to write about 'Chosen Slavery', he meant that no one could enslave us without our consent; it meant that as long as we refused to be slaves no one could force slavery on us. And that is more true of great multitudes of people: no one can subject a great number of people to be enslaved without exercising some kind of magic or jugglery over them, exactly as the Pharaoh's magicians exercised it, when their ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66). Do you not see how a myriad of people are threatened with death, and they believe it! A magic no better than Pharaoh's magicians'. It is our responsibility to help people have consciousness enough to be freed from magic, any magic, not just one form of it. Our present writings bind people further to our chosen slavery. In view of ideas like the above I sometimes say that what the prophets taught, though it descended from heaven, has not yet reached the earth. What they taught was not killing people, and not killing the despot or the oppressor: it is rather to disobey the tyrant, if he commands you to kill; it is to hold back your hand in that case. Why has this point remained ignored and undiscussed; in the modern terminology, as used by Arkoun, it would be called unthought of, or even unthinkable. There was a time when it was impossible to think about an earth orbiting the sun: that was so according to the culture of a certain period, according to accepted concepts. Similarly, it is at this moment unthinkable that one refrains from killing if commanded to kill. How long will it take us to get out of our darkness? Bilal, Ammar, Sumayyah and Yaser, four companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, succeeded in getting out of obeying the oppressor and doing what he dictated; they simply held their hand back. And that is the real kernel of belief in the One God: to get out of being enslaved to the taghoot. That is why I say: instead of seeing the young Islamists being imprisoned or put to death or tortured for attempting to kill someone, I would prefer that they are tortured, put to death, or imprisoned because they have refused to kill. It is strange how we do not teach a Muslim youth not to kill Muslims! It is strange how we inspire him to kill the tyrant! How often in our history have we killed the tyrants, and the result has only been that their assassins turned themselves into tyrants. Will this simple fact be learned one day? All the armies of the world teach their soldiers to act on what they are commanded and to do so without objection: it is the commanding authority which bears the responsibility for the command. This is man's law; but Allah's law, belief in the One God, does not allow you to obey anyone when their command is contrary to God's command. From the first sura (chapter) that was revealed to the Prophet we learn to disobey an unjust command: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … Nay, heed him not: but bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer to God!" (96:9-19) It has been heartening to hear recently how more than thirty senior officers in the Turkish army were expelled for their 'indiscipline': they dared to perform their prayers in their barracks in public. When you insist on doing your prayer in defiance of the taghoot, you will learn, and you will inspire others to learn, to disobey him when he commands you to kill Muslims. Others are waiting for you to lead the way, so do not let them down: be the first to disobey the tyrant. Will we not learn when to disobey tyrants? They will go on commanding their soldiers to kill as long as they find soldiers who say: "Yes, Sir!" But Bilal, who technically was considered a slave, did better. He was owned by a master, but he learned that there was another Master, who had more right to be obeyed. As long his earthly master commanded that which did not contradict his Divine Master, he obeyed him; but when his earthly master commanded that which contradicted the commands of his Divine Master, then no obedience was due to the former. He challenged them in the same way Pharaoh's magicians said to their master: "decree whatever thou desirest to decree: for thou canst only decree touching the life of this world;" (the Qur'an, 20:72). The issue of monotheism and polytheism is at present vague and dim: how can it be otherwise when we ourselves, not having had matured in relation to this issue, do not bear it to people in the proper way? I did quote above the prophets' message, one and all, as the Qur'an reports: "Serve Allah, and eschew the taghoot 'the transgressor beyond all bounds'!" (16:36) About this message, the Qur'an also says, addressing Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him: "it has already been revealed to thee – as it was to those before thee – 'if thou were to join gods with God, truly fruitless will be thy work in life, and thou wilt surely be in the ranks of those who lose all good' " (39:65). It is the easiest thing to observe, in connection with the last verse, how we, Muslims, are losers – who indeed is a bigger loser than we are in the whole world! How, when no day passes but we have poured on our heads severe catastrophes that humiliate us, so that we no longer can raise our head, neither before others, nor even in private. I know that I view the world and understand it in a way different from what many view and understand. But this helps me see the light of the Qur'an. I feel that my conception helps me confront the world and announce what I have to say. I feel this approach makes the laws of the world match the verses of the Qur'an. We realize that the laws of the world and the verses of the Qur'an proceed from the same Source, and when they work together there is great light, and they will give man a great peace. Take for instance the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion:" (2:256). It neutralizes the use of power over man's heart and mind. Allah allows no material power to control man's heart and mind. He protects man's conscience from compulsion. It is so because belief that is the result of compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief: that is why, if Muslims conquer an unbeliever physically, he has the right to adhere to his disbelief, and Muslims are bound to respect that and to let him be. One achievement of modernity has been its declaration of the freedom of faith; it is an article that is included in all modern constitutions. It asserts that man's faith is protected, that he may not be made to change his faith by force, but rather by persuasion. Now this principle, that force may not be the means to changing people's faith took root when some nations' physical strength reached a point where it could destroy the earth and all life upon it. This maximization of strength led to important and obvious results, although people's adhering to old habits, and the long tradition of yielding to force, continues to be operative, although their hold keeps weakening. Since the first atomic bomb was detonated more than fifty years back, a new state of things has started to take place, although the world does not seem to fully appreciate it, as the old language of threats is still in use: it is a language that is obsolete in practice, but is still in theory, opposite to many situations in which we assert an idea in theory, but do not act upon it in practice. Now after force has lost its theoretical basis, it has become a killing crime. That is why the big powers no longer fight among themselves and it has ceased to be an option among them: they know this well, and abide by it, too. Among the big powers, violence and fighting are no longer in use; but they are still the policy when they deal with the less fortunate parts of the world. In these other parts of the world, to which we belong, people still believe in force, that real change can be effected through compulsion. Let it be remembered, however, that once we, small powers, engage in violence, as we often do, the benefiting party will be the big powers. This is such a true rule that anyone, among the small powers, who tries to solve his problem by resorting to violence, will have sold his case to the big enemies; and that is so no matter if one happens to be the initiator of violence or not. As for the big powers, some do fall to be sure, but not through fighting, as happened to the former Soviet Union. It collapsed from within, not because of any external enemy who intervened in their life and brought about their collapse. We may also look at the other side of the coin: what happened to Japan, a nation that surrendered unconditionally as a result of the two atomic bombs dropped on it during the Second World War. And then, not long after that, you see the Japanese sitting, without possessing atomic weaponry, on a footing with the seven big powers of the world. There must be in this a lesson to learn how this happened without destructive weapons: the Japanese are human beings like us, and without even a Divine Book, not being Jews, Christians, or Muslims; and in this there is more reason to reflect and try to understand how it happened. Therefore we may say, Abdul-Jabbar, that when the Qur'an commands us to have ready against our enemy all the strength we can (8:60), the strength we need to take care of is no longer that of physical weaponry; we do know that, in the above verse Muslims were commanded to have steeds of war ready, but of course nobody would now consider having horses in stables in preparation for war, nor having spears and swords. Likewise, we no longer do we need to have ready tanks, atomic bombs nor Teton bombs. They are all obsolete. As long as man has the skill to control and to think can adopt other alternatives. For man is enabled by God to corrupt his soul, or to purify it; he is also enabled to control things. One effect of the obsolescence of the physical power's control of the intellect is the coming into existence of the European Union. It was not imposed with force – on the contrary, it came into existence in response to the elimination of physical conflict, the physical conflict which had long been adopted for the gaining of advantage and prestige. Modern Europe was not united by a Napoleon or a Hitler, though each had reached Russia and the Arab World: but one died by committing suicide, while the other died in exile. And now, when Europe unites, it is not on the basis of Germany above all, or France above all; it is rather on the basis of Germany is equal to any other member of the Union. It is on the basis of getting over all the arrogant boastfulness; it is by getting over the stinking chauvinism that the Messenger, peace be upon him, cautioned against: "Abandon that ethnic arrogance, for it stinks." I am not unaware of some of the objections to these ideas. Some will cite Israel, which adopts force, and has used it in establishing itself, in maintaining its existence and in guaranteeing its survival. Malek Bennabi used to compare Israel to the red cloth which is carried by a matador: a red cloth is carried to infuriate the bull, and the bull will butt at the cloth, unaware of the man who holds the cloth; in this way the matador can at the right time stab it. Those who attach their hopes to weapons are really doing what Israel was established for: It was established to distract our attention from our real woes. As I said, it was Malek Bennabi who gave me such a jolt when he rated Israel as not a primary but a secondary problem. From then, my understanding was improving, until the Second Gulf War came, and that was the last straw. It was an event that exposed all the shortcomings of Arabs and Muslims: in a minute, we forgot Israel, and turned against our own brethren. All the pre-Islamic culture came to the forefront, for the Arabs used then to attack their own kin with all their might. We suddenly thought that one Arab state was more dangerous for Arabs than Israel and its allies. Considerations like the above show that the Islamist's culture is the same as the secularist's, despite all their superficial differences. They are the same in their blind allegiances to a past that we have not brought under analysis, or to foreign systems that we do not comprehend, to systems that are really on their way to decadence and disintegration. The Islamists are not more perceptive than the secularists, nor are they more capable of conducting an investigation into things, but let us hope that the new generation will learn more as more experiences are accumulating. If the events of Afghanistan and Algeria are deplorable, the events in Turkey and Iran give us hopes that come rather as a surprise. We need to look sharp at the events in Iran and Turkey, and to interpret them in a mature way, and I personally have my own reading of those events. What happened in Iran is something new, unprecedented in the Muslim World. Until it happened, all the political changes in the Muslim World used to take place through an internal coup, through tribal or familial rivalry. The public, the common people were absent from the scenes. In some cases it was the military commanders who led the coup d'état. Iran's revolution was unlike any of the above: it was the masses' revolution, and the woman's before the man's. That was a major shift in perspective, a most radical change of events. It was such a great event that its greatness was perhaps why we did not appreciate it! Some merely said it was miraculous, some said it was a Divine act, that it cannot be analyzed with reference to the laws of this world. When the Shah issued his edicts of curfew, Khomeini commanded people to defy the Shah's command and go out into the streets, men and women. They had nothing in their hands but flowers to offer to soldiers. Women are more efficient in such a situation than men; nor does such procedure require any military training, nor any weapons: the only condition is that each individual announces that he/she is free in practicing his/her faith: I'll hold on to my faith, and I disbelieve in that other doctrine, so kill me if you like. And big numbers were actually killed, but there was always someone ready to replace the martyr. In that way, the Shah was expelled without any shot against him; no one was trying to assassinate him. That was the way for transferring the authority to the masses. They realized that no power could resist the people's power. That was a new discovery, a new power in the full sense of newness. It was not in need for the polling box as in Algeria; nor was it like Afghanistan, where they sought to isolate the woman at home. No internal or external power was able to stop the Iranian revolution. When people have consciousness no external power can suppress their power. And so, despite all the hue and cry, it was not possible to frustrate the Iranian revolution. It remained steadfast and assertive, despite all the deplorable experience with Iraq. Let me dream here, and let Abdul-Jabbar and the readers forgive me, that the Iranians were capable of dominating Iraq, if they had adhered to the same way they had used with the Shah, but they did not use the same way. But they will learn. The budding democracy of Iran will take root, God willing. The democratic challenge of Iran is picking speed; they prove that they are capable of conducting free elections, that two different candidates can compete, and that one can be chosen in a peaceful democratic way. The world had thought that though the Khomeini revolution succeeded, Iran would not succeed in its second test, a democratic transfer of authority, but it did succeed. Their progress towards democracy is remarkable, and it is replete with significance. The Iranian nation has enjoyed the sweet taste of success, and will not give up its democracy; the masses are determining their own destiny, and one only can wish them success. It is setting the mode for an Islamic community that its neighbors feel safe with: this is a capital that is invaluable, no money and no treasure are equal to this, to make your neighbor feel safe with you, that your neighbor is sure you will not stab him in the back, even if he does you a mischief, that you only work for his good. This is a new relationship that no troublemakers can spoil, and we hope that there are enough wise people to maintain it, in spite of the discordant voices. Similarly, the Turks, who had been the first Muslims to throw off Islamic rule, [though really a corrupt caliphate] – it is they themselves who now go ahead of other Muslim nations in challenging secularism with democracy. They proceed in steady steps, and that is a proof that the Almighty God will have His light grow into perfection, and what happens at a local scale will spread to a regional and international scale. Those who uphold isolation and war are becoming less and less, and those who oppose isolation and war are growing in number, and getting more steadfast. Allah did hint to the angels that man would get over mischief and spilling blood (the Qur'an, 2:30), and we have reason to believe that this is coming to be realized. Problems which seemed to have no solution are solvable now, without human sacrifices. I say that not only because I believe in the unseen, but on the basis of actual signs in the real world. And now, let's get back to the problem of Israel, a phenomenon that did its part in full, by distracting Muslims from their real obligations, from dealing with the huge problems that they have inherited over the centuries. One of the things that are not thought about, for instance, is that Arabs often talk about peace with Israel, although Israel does not have the bases for survival; they harp on peace with Israel, while they ignore the pressing issue of peace among ourselves. It is here that the work lies. Malek Bennabi used to say: When we begin to talk about colonisibility more than we talk about colonialism, then we are on the way to solving our problems. That the problem lies in us is asserted by God, by His Prophet, peace be upon him, by Adam, and even by the Devil – Allah says, as we recite in the Qur'an: "What! When a single disaster smites you, although ye smote your enemies with one twice as great, do you say: 'Whence is this?' Say to them: 'It is from yourselves;' " (3:165). Incidentally, the Qur'an is the only book that blames the victim more than it blames the oppressor or aggressor; it is so for the oppressor cannot inflict his oppression without our giving him the chance to do so; should we stop giving him the chance, he will just fall. As for the Prophet, peace be upon him, he says, in the course of a long tradition: "Let him who encounters a good outcome praise God for it; and let him who encounters an adverse outcome blame no one but himself." But we are still prepared to blame everyone and anyone, except ourselves. Adam, peace be upon him, having eaten, together with his wife, from the forbidden tree, and after Allah had reprimanded them: "Did I not forbid you that tree?" he replied, together with his wife: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls;" (7:22-23) They accepted to take the responsibility for their mistake, and therefore merited to be appointed viceroys in the earth. As for Satan, he will say to his followers on the Day of Judgment, as the Qur'an reports: "I had no authority over you except to call you, but ye listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls;" (14:22) In this connection, the historian Toynbee summed up history by saying that civilizations did not die like martyrs, but like suicide committers: it is only after civilizations have died that vultures and eagles, come upon the corpses of those civilizations and eat them. It is worth our while to reflect on what prevents us from considering peace among ourselves. We really have to look into that! There is a long history of wrangling and squabbling among us that blocks our considering the other alternative. I have personally often questioned people about that, and have always found it is merely that people are unable to imagine that we are capable of realizing peace among ourselves, a peace in which there is no loser, in which everyone is a winner: kings, presidents, princes, financiers, land-owners. No one will lose anything; indeed they will all gain. It is something that people in our part of the world cannot imagine, because they have a presupposition that problems may not be solved without eliminating the other, or grabbing what he has. The truth, however, is that in this new alternative no one will be a loser; all will be winners; and we can actually observe how this is happening on the earth, not in a remote galaxy. History is the best witness to the outcome of peaceful dealings and aggressive dealings. Therefore, the more Israel impedes peaceful efforts, the more we should solidify peace among ourselves, and blame ourselves for our mistakes, not blame each other. I address this not to politicians and statesmen, who are preoccupied with their immediate problems. I address the ordinary person, the ordinary man and woman. To them I say there is a solution in which there is no loser, all are winners. We have a presupposition inculcated in us, even before we learn to talk, that we need to eliminate some party to unite the Muslims. In this way we condone the stabbing in the back, and we extol the conduct of those who betray: the implication of our behavior is that to get over treason, the only way is to do further treason. The truth is that the right approach to eliminating wrongdoing is not to commit more wrongdoing, but to behave righteously. When I speak of peace among ourselves, I do not call to this in secret, but publicly. Is it a sin to call to this peace among ourselves? Only a guilty conscience may stand in the way to this objective. This is not even a call to democracy, for democracy is still a far cry, but at least let us begin with something within our reach. If we proceed with this, people will feel that there is room for an idea other than what is prevalent so far, that there are some who believe in this other option, who discuss it, and who meet to affirm it. It is a simple thing that I am calling to, so let us repeat it frequently enough until it becomes familiar to the ears of everybody. At present people say what many peoples used to say to the prophets as the Qur'an reports: "Never did we hear such a thing as he says among our ancestors of old;" (23:24). We should repeat until it becomes a quite familiar thing to people, and until they themselves say it. At least in this way it will settle into people's hearts that there can be peace and safety among Muslims and believers. How else can peace be realized? If that settles into our consciousness, then we shall hail those who contribute to the peace and safety among Arabs and Muslims, not those who want to unite the Arabs or Muslims with the sword. Let us remember how with a minimum of cooperation among Arabs during the 1973 war, they accomplished something: they felt that their oil belonged to them, and they felt the confidence of crossing the fear barrier. Let us remember on the other hand that when two Arab countries fell apart in the Gulf war, they lost their dignity and their money. Not after more than ten years can we sit together amicably. The road to peace is still open, but we need to have the concepts right in our minds and then to talk; we need to talk with full understanding and consciousness. At the moment, the way to peace is not evident even in theory, let alone its realization in practice. We need to explore the way of peace, and to pave that way, so that people may go along that way with confidence. People have certain preconceptions which are not voiced, but which are more operative than any written and signed contract: they have implicitly conspired that since the time Muslims lost the right guided state, and since they fell into a state of compulsion in politics (with the coming of the Umayyads), it was right for regaining that upright state to resort to compulsion and treachery. No one said that, as it is not right to be announced, but everyone had it in mind, and it was transmitted to everyone, until it has settled down as the most natural thing. Not until now can we dare face that implicit complicity; we do not recall it to consciousness to be healed of it, or to start to be healed of it. But we have really to get back to that right guided approach in understanding the words of the Lord when He says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion: uprightness stands out clear from error: whoever rejects taghoot 'the tyrannical transgressor' and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks;" (2:256). In the above verse when Allah says: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion,' this directive is indicative of what distinguishes uprightness from error or misguidance; that compulsion IS misguidance. That becomes more manifest when we go to the third clause, 'whoever rejects taghoot and believes in God …', for the taghoot believes in compulsion; indeed his life, survival, and very existence are based on compulsion. To reject that taghoot, and to believe in Allah, that is in Allah's religion, and to believe in His command to abstain from compulsion – that is grasping the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. Another aspect of that implicit and misguided complicity, something that has spread until it is taken to be for granted is that if truth and falsehood are given equal chance, falsehood will have the better of truth, that truth will be defeated, and people will choose falsehood, rather than truth. Now first of all this is mistrusting God; it is about an attitude like this that the Qur'an says: "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154) and it says: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost;" (41:23) And secondly, God says about truth and falsehood, that "truth has now arrived, and falsehood perished: for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish;" (17:81) The Qur'an never says that once falsehood arrives, truth will perish, but it is settled in our hearts that it is so. Somehow it has been inspired into our hearts over the centuries to dread falsehood in an unnatural and unwarranted degree. The Qur'an says: "Say: 'the truth has arrived, and falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything;" (34:49). And it says: "Nay, we hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish;" (21:18) It is mistrusting God; it is also mistrusting truth and Islam, when we suppose that if people are given the choice, they will abandon truth and Islam. It is in the third place mistrusting man, when we think that he is more inclined to evil than to goodness. But man does not have peace of heart except when he chooses goodness; it is when men sink into ignorance that their bad deeds will seem good in their eyes. Therefore, it is our duty to deliver the message in the clearest way. When things are quite manifest, then those who insist on adhering to falsehood, the condemned, will be a small minority. It is God's law that the majority of people will choose truth once it is made absolutely clear. [Translator's note: Mr. Sa'eed has skipped the reply to Question Two, without explicitly saying why. It seems that he assumed that he had said enough about it in the course of his answer to Question One.] 98 97 2009-08-23T09:40:38Z Admin 1 /* 8 */ wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that. Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. ==8== So far, I think I have somehow attended to your first two questions, 1, the intellectual junctures, and 2, the intellectual elements. I was once a follower of the 'salafi' trend (following the example of the first generations of Islam), then I drew my inspiration from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and then it was Iqbal. Then I discovered Muhammad Arkoun, and that was a more demanding stage than any other, for when you are dealing with the West, it is not easy to see your way, and to detect the pitfalls. But I drew from Iqbal some strength. He used to say: Your civilization will keep tumbling and slipping, for a nest that is built on a fragile bough will not stay long; your fire does not dazzle my eyes, for I have chosen to follow Abraham's faith. Can we ever when dealing with the West adhere to the rule of "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (the Qur'an, 46:16)? Why should some of us see nothing of the West but its worst delusions and aberrations, while others see nothing but the opposite? It is right to say here that it is not only the means of transportation that the Westerners have invented, but they have invented a way of transferring rule without spilling blood: this latter innovation is far more worthy than the means of transportation. And while we are anxious to buy and buy vehicles ( buy rather than manufacture), we are not at all anxious to learn the transfer in politics and rule, the way rule can be transferred from person to person without spilling blood: not many of us believe in the power of the idea, that people can be persuaded rather than coerced; neither the secularist nor the pious believe in this. Though in the Western democracy the transfer of rule is tarnished by some deception and fraud to manipulate the voters, it is still not gained through intimidating people with the whip and iron and fire. Democracy is quite a new thing in the world, despite all the elementary forms that had appeared at various times in the past. Muslims had a certain form of free opinion at the time of the Upright Caliphs, and when they lost that Muslims felt in a vague way that something right was slipping away, and therefore some said, when Mu'awiyah was planning to have his son forced on people as ruler after him: "What are trying to do? Are you adopting the method of the czars, who when a czar dies, he is succeeded by a czar!" Muslims did feel that something great was being wasted, thought they did not quite understand the proper way. But mankind went beyond that, for as the Qur'an teaches us, and as I quoted above, God adds to creation as He pleases, and so how freedom and representation should be translated into an applied reality was developed and elaborated. Things do change. Modernity appeared in people's view of the universe, for at one time, and for so many centuries, men asserted that the sun orbited the earth, and when some declared that it was the other way round, that we were not at the center of the universe, many people were extremely alarmed and outraged: they felt something terrible would happen if man, and man's earth, were not at the center of the universe. Indeed, some people were prepared to die, or to send others to death, to keep the old idea intact. But the change was taking place in astronomy, and modernity was starting to take root, and our view of the universe was changing. Other things were happening, the steam engine, the combustion engine. Instead of the horse, the camel and the donkey, new means of transportation were introduced that the older generations had not dreamed of. The telescope enabled people to see what they never dreamed of seeing before; on the other hand the microscope showed people tiny particles that were never seen before: germs were seen that enabled men to discover the causes of epidemics; in this way cures for many diseases were discovered. And ever so much more sophistication is taking place. All started from Copernicus, and people can comprehend this; but the other revolution, that in the social, political, and human spheres is not yet appreciated. From observing history, one can notice a certain very curious phenomenon. In the past, kings seemed to be of huge stature, apparently there to stay for ever; and if a king was eliminated by assassination, then it was only his person who was eliminated. His same prestige was transferred to his successor. Also, the public in the past were taken to be an ignorant, worthless, a homogeneous mass; with no claim to any part at all in public affairs, apart from prostrating themselves before their monarch. And then, the astronomical revolution was followed by a social revolution, when kings dwindled and dwindled, until they are in the developed societies no more than relics from the past, physically preserved, but without any authority whatsoever. Power was being transferred to the people, very slowly, but very surely. This really is a move towards modernity, social modernity. Man is growing in stature; by which we mean that man's consciousness is growing, the more so as he learns more about history. One can recall the time when men offered human sacrifices, and how, when Abraham appeared, a stop was put to this offering of human sacrifices. It is right to see in the Islamic practices of offering an animal sacrifice during al-Adha Bairam, a declaration of the end of offering human sacrifices. It announces that humankind is developing and advancing. That with the advent of Islam a new epoch was arriving, and was being proclaimed in many ways. There is in the Qur'an the debate between Abraham and the tyrannical ruler, whom Abraham challenged to show any control over universe's laws (2:258.) That the unbeliever was nonplused is a reminder that the world is shocked when a new stage comes forth. The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, announced during his 'farewell pilgrimage' the experience of Abraham, and he announced to all human beings: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No Arab is to be favored over a non-Arab, no white is to be favored over a black – except in piety." He added: Do not regress into wild life, spilling each other's blood." He also exhorted his audience to be kind to women, who were [at that time] confined at homes and wholly controlled by men. It was a new epoch of equity and the elimination of privileges, announced at least in theory. But the scientific transformation was slow, so slow, to take place. Am I straying away from the questions? Well, my justification is that the points are within the Islamic dilemma, and the human dilemma. I feel that the facts of the world are regaining to the texts their significance after they have been vitiated of it. It is relevant here to assert that the message of all the prophets is one and the same. No matter how we brand Christianity or Judaism as polytheistic or chauvinistic, the essence of all the divine religions is one and the same: they all revolve on monotheism which, as long as it remains intact, all other sins may be forgiven; but if it is marred, no act of devotion is accepted. We may read about that in the Qur'an: "For We assuredly sent amongst every people an apostles with the command, 'Serve God and eschew taghoot [the trespasser beyond all limits, the tyrant]' " (16:36) So let's remember the one message which was conveyed by each and every apostle, 'Serve God and eschew the taghhot'. Now in all the comments and exegeses on the Qur'an, I have never seen any adequate explanation of the word 'taghoot'. They merely render it as 'evil', 'Satan', or 'the idols'; while, if we do a little search about the derivatives of the word, for its root 'tagha', we find the Qur'an uses the word differently from what the commentators have taken it to be. We find for instance that God directs Moses to go to Pharaoh with these words, 'Go thou to Pharaoh, for he has indeed tagha [i.e. transgressed beyond all bounds.]' (76:17;) and we find, "[Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with …, and with …, ] And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these taghau [transgressed beyond bounds] in the land, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties: For thy Lord is like a guardian on a watch-tower." (89:10-14) No tyrant is held up in the Qur'an as the prototype of transgression and tyranny more than Pharaoh; not any name – apart from that of Allah – is mentioned in the Qur'an more often than that of Moses, the man who stood in the face of Pharaoh; and that in the greatest civilization of the ancient world. The Qur'an lets Pharaoh utter all he feels about the attitudes and nuances of the feelings of the oppressors, all that is publicly and privately uttered by this category as represented by their foremost archetype is recorded in the Qur'an. Moses is equally the model for challenging the tyrant; he keeps reminding his people of all they need to do to rid themselves of the submissive state to the transgressor. It must be revealing that the story of Moses and Pharaoh has been repeated in the Qur'an more than any other story, with varying details and lengths. It has definitely been given less than justice of investigation and analysis. It is to be noted that the issue of monotheism and polytheism does not focus on the divine aspect but on the attitude of individuals and communities: it is a human-social-political issue: it is concerned with putting right the relations among people – that God is One was not unknown to the Quraysh tribe which the Prophet, peace be on him, first addressed, exactly as now we say about God He is One. But still they rejected the message borne by the Messenger: the point of their dispute with the Messenger was that in that society some individuals were granted privileges not granted to the rest of society; some individuals were held to be above the law. The sort of community the Prophet, peace be upon him, was introducing, a society in which the law is applied to Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, in the same way as to any other man or woman, that was an unheard of society. Theirs was the same as the societies in our own time: we just need to cite the Veto Right in the foremost of all the organizations of our world to see that societies not only keep silent when this great transgression is committed, but those who are not endowed the Veto Right crave it bitterly. It shows that polytheism is still true of our time at the highest level in the world; the transgressors are the biggest powers in the world, and their transgression is endorsed by the smaller and smallest transgressors. Nobody stands up to denounce the Veto Right. It is for the above reason that Iqbal used to say that monotheism was not the opposite of multiple gods, but the opposite of 'shirk, i.e. taking some people to be above the law, not applying the law to some individuals.' When Pharaoh said: "I am your Lord, most high," (79:24), he meant that it was he, and no other person, who had the right to enact law, and to be himself exempt from the law. He said to his people, as the Qur'an reports: "I but point out to you that which I see myself, nor do I guide you but to the path of right;" (40:29); he said to his people: "No god do I know for you but myself!" (28:38); he said to Moses: "If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put thee in prison!" (26:29) and he said to his magicians, when they declared their converting to the new faith: "Believe ye in him before I give you permission? Surely he is your leader, who has taught you sorcery! But soon shall ye know! Be sure I will cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will cause you all to die on the cross!" (26:49-50).These events of history should teach us laws, in the same way as the chemist observes and experiments and draws out laws. The events of history point out how man builds up and destroys, that man is equal to establishing intelligent life, and is prone to ruin it: that was true in the past, and it is true at present. It is man's responsibility to do right: "Truly he succeeds that purifies [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it!" (91:9-10). If Pharaoh's sorcerers' ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66), there is similar magic now, when men now use the war-heads and missiles, assuming that they have control; they are indeed not better than Pharaoh's sorcerers. And we let ourselves be led into believing in the magic when we take those weapons to indicate that those who use them have control. Why do not we notice that all the atomic power of the former Soviet Union did not help in saving it from collapse? One lesson that we should have drawn is that as long as you give muscles rather than intellect your confidence, you are bound to fall, for you become a victim of your muscles. The prophets did better when they taught humankind a more extraordinary and revolutionary way of change in human relationships, a way of conducting human, social and political affairs in the most economical way, indeed without any cost to any party. The prophets reversed the equation adopted by many quarters: instead of a relationship based on muscular power, and on the threat of killing the other, instead of bragging: "I give life and death;" (the Qur'an, 2:258), it is in the prophets' way giving life and not death; instead of a relationship based on killing and counter-killing, it is a relationship based on holding back from killing. It is a radically different way of viewing things; it reverses matters completely; it utterly transforms the situation. That is so because instead of man being slave to man, he becomes a slave to the Lord of men. That is why the Qur'an does not say: "Kill the taghoot (the transgressor, the oppressor, the despot)"; but it rather says: "Those who eschew the taghoot and fall not into its worship, and turn to God in repentance, for them is good news: so announce the good news to My Servants;" (39:17) and it says: "God is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depth of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are taghoots: from light they lead them forth into the depths of darkness;" (2:257). Modernity first appeared in astronomy, and then it appeared in the social sphere. When someone started to write about 'Chosen Slavery', he meant that no one could enslave us without our consent; it meant that as long as we refused to be slaves no one could force slavery on us. And that is more true of great multitudes of people: no one can subject a great number of people to be enslaved without exercising some kind of magic or jugglery over them, exactly as the Pharaoh's magicians exercised it, when their ropes and rods seemed on account of their magic to be in lively motion (20:66). Do you not see how a myriad of people are threatened with death, and they believe it! A magic no better than Pharaoh's magicians'. It is our responsibility to help people have consciousness enough to be freed from magic, any magic, not just one form of it. Our present writings bind people further to our chosen slavery. In view of ideas like the above I sometimes say that what the prophets taught, though it descended from heaven, has not yet reached the earth. What they taught was not killing people, and not killing the despot or the oppressor: it is rather to disobey the tyrant, if he commands you to kill; it is to hold back your hand in that case. Why has this point remained ignored and undiscussed; in the modern terminology, as used by Arkoun, it would be called unthought of, or even unthinkable. There was a time when it was impossible to think about an earth orbiting the sun: that was so according to the culture of a certain period, according to accepted concepts. Similarly, it is at this moment unthinkable that one refrains from killing if commanded to kill. How long will it take us to get out of our darkness? Bilal, Ammar, Sumayyah and Yaser, four companions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, succeeded in getting out of obeying the oppressor and doing what he dictated; they simply held their hand back. And that is the real kernel of belief in the One God: to get out of being enslaved to the taghoot. That is why I say: instead of seeing the young Islamists being imprisoned or put to death or tortured for attempting to kill someone, I would prefer that they are tortured, put to death, or imprisoned because they have refused to kill. It is strange how we do not teach a Muslim youth not to kill Muslims! It is strange how we inspire him to kill the tyrant! How often in our history have we killed the tyrants, and the result has only been that their assassins turned themselves into tyrants. Will this simple fact be learned one day? All the armies of the world teach their soldiers to act on what they are commanded and to do so without objection: it is the commanding authority which bears the responsibility for the command. This is man's law; but Allah's law, belief in the One God, does not allow you to obey anyone when their command is contrary to God's command. From the first sura (chapter) that was revealed to the Prophet we learn to disobey an unjust command: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … Nay, heed him not: but bow down in adoration, and bring thyself the closer to God!" (96:9-19) It has been heartening to hear recently how more than thirty senior officers in the Turkish army were expelled for their 'indiscipline': they dared to perform their prayers in their barracks in public. When you insist on doing your prayer in defiance of the taghoot, you will learn, and you will inspire others to learn, to disobey him when he commands you to kill Muslims. Others are waiting for you to lead the way, so do not let them down: be the first to disobey the tyrant. Will we not learn when to disobey tyrants? They will go on commanding their soldiers to kill as long as they find soldiers who say: "Yes, Sir!" But Bilal, who technically was considered a slave, did better. He was owned by a master, but he learned that there was another Master, who had more right to be obeyed. As long his earthly master commanded that which did not contradict his Divine Master, he obeyed him; but when his earthly master commanded that which contradicted the commands of his Divine Master, then no obedience was due to the former. He challenged them in the same way Pharaoh's magicians said to their master: "decree whatever thou desirest to decree: for thou canst only decree touching the life of this world;" (the Qur'an, 20:72). The issue of monotheism and polytheism is at present vague and dim: how can it be otherwise when we ourselves, not having had matured in relation to this issue, do not bear it to people in the proper way? I did quote above the prophets' message, one and all, as the Qur'an reports: "Serve Allah, and eschew the taghoot 'the transgressor beyond all bounds'!" (16:36) About this message, the Qur'an also says, addressing Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him: "it has already been revealed to thee – as it was to those before thee – 'if thou were to join gods with God, truly fruitless will be thy work in life, and thou wilt surely be in the ranks of those who lose all good' " (39:65). It is the easiest thing to observe, in connection with the last verse, how we, Muslims, are losers – who indeed is a bigger loser than we are in the whole world! How, when no day passes but we have poured on our heads severe catastrophes that humiliate us, so that we no longer can raise our head, neither before others, nor even in private. I know that I view the world and understand it in a way different from what many view and understand. But this helps me see the light of the Qur'an. I feel that my conception helps me confront the world and announce what I have to say. I feel this approach makes the laws of the world match the verses of the Qur'an. We realize that the laws of the world and the verses of the Qur'an proceed from the same Source, and when they work together there is great light, and they will give man a great peace. Take for instance the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion:" (2:256). It neutralizes the use of power over man's heart and mind. Allah allows no material power to control man's heart and mind. He protects man's conscience from compulsion. It is so because belief that is the result of compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief: that is why, if Muslims conquer an unbeliever physically, he has the right to adhere to his disbelief, and Muslims are bound to respect that and to let him be. One achievement of modernity has been its declaration of the freedom of faith; it is an article that is included in all modern constitutions. It asserts that man's faith is protected, that he may not be made to change his faith by force, but rather by persuasion. Now this principle, that force may not be the means to changing people's faith took root when some nations' physical strength reached a point where it could destroy the earth and all life upon it. This maximization of strength led to important and obvious results, although people's adhering to old habits, and the long tradition of yielding to force, continues to be operative, although their hold keeps weakening. Since the first atomic bomb was detonated more than fifty years back, a new state of things has started to take place, although the world does not seem to fully appreciate it, as the old language of threats is still in use: it is a language that is obsolete in practice, but is still in theory, opposite to many situations in which we assert an idea in theory, but do not act upon it in practice. Now after force has lost its theoretical basis, it has become a killing crime. That is why the big powers no longer fight among themselves and it has ceased to be an option among them: they know this well, and abide by it, too. Among the big powers, violence and fighting are no longer in use; but they are still the policy when they deal with the less fortunate parts of the world. In these other parts of the world, to which we belong, people still believe in force, that real change can be effected through compulsion. Let it be remembered, however, that once we, small powers, engage in violence, as we often do, the benefiting party will be the big powers. This is such a true rule that anyone, among the small powers, who tries to solve his problem by resorting to violence, will have sold his case to the big enemies; and that is so no matter if one happens to be the initiator of violence or not. As for the big powers, some do fall to be sure, but not through fighting, as happened to the former Soviet Union. It collapsed from within, not because of any external enemy who intervened in their life and brought about their collapse. We may also look at the other side of the coin: what happened to Japan, a nation that surrendered unconditionally as a result of the two atomic bombs dropped on it during the Second World War. And then, not long after that, you see the Japanese sitting, without possessing atomic weaponry, on a footing with the seven big powers of the world. There must be in this a lesson to learn how this happened without destructive weapons: the Japanese are human beings like us, and without even a Divine Book, not being Jews, Christians, or Muslims; and in this there is more reason to reflect and try to understand how it happened. Therefore we may say, Abdul-Jabbar, that when the Qur'an commands us to have ready against our enemy all the strength we can (8:60), the strength we need to take care of is no longer that of physical weaponry; we do know that, in the above verse Muslims were commanded to have steeds of war ready, but of course nobody would now consider having horses in stables in preparation for war, nor having spears and swords. Likewise, we no longer do we need to have ready tanks, atomic bombs nor Teton bombs. They are all obsolete. As long as man has the skill to control and to think can adopt other alternatives. For man is enabled by God to corrupt his soul, or to purify it; he is also enabled to control things. One effect of the obsolescence of the physical power's control of the intellect is the coming into existence of the European Union. It was not imposed with force – on the contrary, it came into existence in response to the elimination of physical conflict, the physical conflict which had long been adopted for the gaining of advantage and prestige. Modern Europe was not united by a Napoleon or a Hitler, though each had reached Russia and the Arab World: but one died by committing suicide, while the other died in exile. And now, when Europe unites, it is not on the basis of Germany above all, or France above all; it is rather on the basis of Germany is equal to any other member of the Union. It is on the basis of getting over all the arrogant boastfulness; it is by getting over the stinking chauvinism that the Messenger, peace be upon him, cautioned against: "Abandon that ethnic arrogance, for it stinks." I am not unaware of some of the objections to these ideas. Some will cite Israel, which adopts force, and has used it in establishing itself, in maintaining its existence and in guaranteeing its survival. Malek Bennabi used to compare Israel to the red cloth which is carried by a matador: a red cloth is carried to infuriate the bull, and the bull will butt at the cloth, unaware of the man who holds the cloth; in this way the matador can at the right time stab it. Those who attach their hopes to weapons are really doing what Israel was established for: It was established to distract our attention from our real woes. As I said, it was Malek Bennabi who gave me such a jolt when he rated Israel as not a primary but a secondary problem. From then, my understanding was improving, until the Second Gulf War came, and that was the last straw. It was an event that exposed all the shortcomings of Arabs and Muslims: in a minute, we forgot Israel, and turned against our own brethren. All the pre-Islamic culture came to the forefront, for the Arabs used then to attack their own kin with all their might. We suddenly thought that one Arab state was more dangerous for Arabs than Israel and its allies. Considerations like the above show that the Islamist's culture is the same as the secularist's, despite all their superficial differences. They are the same in their blind allegiances to a past that we have not brought under analysis, or to foreign systems that we do not comprehend, to systems that are really on their way to decadence and disintegration. The Islamists are not more perceptive than the secularists, nor are they more capable of conducting an investigation into things, but let us hope that the new generation will learn more as more experiences are accumulating. If the events of Afghanistan and Algeria are deplorable, the events in Turkey and Iran give us hopes that come rather as a surprise. We need to look sharp at the events in Iran and Turkey, and to interpret them in a mature way, and I personally have my own reading of those events. What happened in Iran is something new, unprecedented in the Muslim World. Until it happened, all the political changes in the Muslim World used to take place through an internal coup, through tribal or familial rivalry. The public, the common people were absent from the scenes. In some cases it was the military commanders who led the coup d'état. Iran's revolution was unlike any of the above: it was the masses' revolution, and the woman's before the man's. That was a major shift in perspective, a most radical change of events. It was such a great event that its greatness was perhaps why we did not appreciate it! Some merely said it was miraculous, some said it was a Divine act, that it cannot be analyzed with reference to the laws of this world. When the Shah issued his edicts of curfew, Khomeini commanded people to defy the Shah's command and go out into the streets, men and women. They had nothing in their hands but flowers to offer to soldiers. Women are more efficient in such a situation than men; nor does such procedure require any military training, nor any weapons: the only condition is that each individual announces that he/she is free in practicing his/her faith: I'll hold on to my faith, and I disbelieve in that other doctrine, so kill me if you like. And big numbers were actually killed, but there was always someone ready to replace the martyr. In that way, the Shah was expelled without any shot against him; no one was trying to assassinate him. That was the way for transferring the authority to the masses. They realized that no power could resist the people's power. That was a new discovery, a new power in the full sense of newness. It was not in need for the polling box as in Algeria; nor was it like Afghanistan, where they sought to isolate the woman at home. No internal or external power was able to stop the Iranian revolution. When people have consciousness no external power can suppress their power. And so, despite all the hue and cry, it was not possible to frustrate the Iranian revolution. It remained steadfast and assertive, despite all the deplorable experience with Iraq. Let me dream here, and let Abdul-Jabbar and the readers forgive me, that the Iranians were capable of dominating Iraq, if they had adhered to the same way they had used with the Shah, but they did not use the same way. But they will learn. The budding democracy of Iran will take root, God willing. The democratic challenge of Iran is picking speed; they prove that they are capable of conducting free elections, that two different candidates can compete, and that one can be chosen in a peaceful democratic way. The world had thought that though the Khomeini revolution succeeded, Iran would not succeed in its second test, a democratic transfer of authority, but it did succeed. Their progress towards democracy is remarkable, and it is replete with significance. The Iranian nation has enjoyed the sweet taste of success, and will not give up its democracy; the masses are determining their own destiny, and one only can wish them success. It is setting the mode for an Islamic community that its neighbors feel safe with: this is a capital that is invaluable, no money and no treasure are equal to this, to make your neighbor feel safe with you, that your neighbor is sure you will not stab him in the back, even if he does you a mischief, that you only work for his good. This is a new relationship that no troublemakers can spoil, and we hope that there are enough wise people to maintain it, in spite of the discordant voices. Similarly, the Turks, who had been the first Muslims to throw off Islamic rule, [though really a corrupt caliphate] – it is they themselves who now go ahead of other Muslim nations in challenging secularism with democracy. They proceed in steady steps, and that is a proof that the Almighty God will have His light grow into perfection, and what happens at a local scale will spread to a regional and international scale. Those who uphold isolation and war are becoming less and less, and those who oppose isolation and war are growing in number, and getting more steadfast. Allah did hint to the angels that man would get over mischief and spilling blood (the Qur'an, 2:30), and we have reason to believe that this is coming to be realized. Problems which seemed to have no solution are solvable now, without human sacrifices. I say that not only because I believe in the unseen, but on the basis of actual signs in the real world. And now, let's get back to the problem of Israel, a phenomenon that did its part in full, by distracting Muslims from their real obligations, from dealing with the huge problems that they have inherited over the centuries. One of the things that are not thought about, for instance, is that Arabs often talk about peace with Israel, although Israel does not have the bases for survival; they harp on peace with Israel, while they ignore the pressing issue of peace among ourselves. It is here that the work lies. Malek Bennabi used to say: When we begin to talk about colonisibility more than we talk about colonialism, then we are on the way to solving our problems. That the problem lies in us is asserted by God, by His Prophet, peace be upon him, by Adam, and even by the Devil – Allah says, as we recite in the Qur'an: "What! When a single disaster smites you, although ye smote your enemies with one twice as great, do you say: 'Whence is this?' Say to them: 'It is from yourselves;' " (3:165). Incidentally, the Qur'an is the only book that blames the victim more than it blames the oppressor or aggressor; it is so for the oppressor cannot inflict his oppression without our giving him the chance to do so; should we stop giving him the chance, he will just fall. As for the Prophet, peace be upon him, he says, in the course of a long tradition: "Let him who encounters a good outcome praise God for it; and let him who encounters an adverse outcome blame no one but himself." But we are still prepared to blame everyone and anyone, except ourselves. Adam, peace be upon him, having eaten, together with his wife, from the forbidden tree, and after Allah had reprimanded them: "Did I not forbid you that tree?" he replied, together with his wife: "Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls;" (7:22-23) They accepted to take the responsibility for their mistake, and therefore merited to be appointed viceroys in the earth. As for Satan, he will say to his followers on the Day of Judgment, as the Qur'an reports: "I had no authority over you except to call you, but ye listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls;" (14:22) In this connection, the historian Toynbee summed up history by saying that civilizations did not die like martyrs, but like suicide committers: it is only after civilizations have died that vultures and eagles, come upon the corpses of those civilizations and eat them. It is worth our while to reflect on what prevents us from considering peace among ourselves. We really have to look into that! There is a long history of wrangling and squabbling among us that blocks our considering the other alternative. I have personally often questioned people about that, and have always found it is merely that people are unable to imagine that we are capable of realizing peace among ourselves, a peace in which there is no loser, in which everyone is a winner: kings, presidents, princes, financiers, land-owners. No one will lose anything; indeed they will all gain. It is something that people in our part of the world cannot imagine, because they have a presupposition that problems may not be solved without eliminating the other, or grabbing what he has. The truth, however, is that in this new alternative no one will be a loser; all will be winners; and we can actually observe how this is happening on the earth, not in a remote galaxy. History is the best witness to the outcome of peaceful dealings and aggressive dealings. Therefore, the more Israel impedes peaceful efforts, the more we should solidify peace among ourselves, and blame ourselves for our mistakes, not blame each other. I address this not to politicians and statesmen, who are preoccupied with their immediate problems. I address the ordinary person, the ordinary man and woman. To them I say there is a solution in which there is no loser, all are winners. We have a presupposition inculcated in us, even before we learn to talk, that we need to eliminate some party to unite the Muslims. In this way we condone the stabbing in the back, and we extol the conduct of those who betray: the implication of our behavior is that to get over treason, the only way is to do further treason. The truth is that the right approach to eliminating wrongdoing is not to commit more wrongdoing, but to behave righteously. When I speak of peace among ourselves, I do not call to this in secret, but publicly. Is it a sin to call to this peace among ourselves? Only a guilty conscience may stand in the way to this objective. This is not even a call to democracy, for democracy is still a far cry, but at least let us begin with something within our reach. If we proceed with this, people will feel that there is room for an idea other than what is prevalent so far, that there are some who believe in this other option, who discuss it, and who meet to affirm it. It is a simple thing that I am calling to, so let us repeat it frequently enough until it becomes familiar to the ears of everybody. At present people say what many peoples used to say to the prophets as the Qur'an reports: "Never did we hear such a thing as he says among our ancestors of old;" (23:24). We should repeat until it becomes a quite familiar thing to people, and until they themselves say it. At least in this way it will settle into people's hearts that there can be peace and safety among Muslims and believers. How else can peace be realized? If that settles into our consciousness, then we shall hail those who contribute to the peace and safety among Arabs and Muslims, not those who want to unite the Arabs or Muslims with the sword. Let us remember how with a minimum of cooperation among Arabs during the 1973 war, they accomplished something: they felt that their oil belonged to them, and they felt the confidence of crossing the fear barrier. Let us remember on the other hand that when two Arab countries fell apart in the Gulf war, they lost their dignity and their money. Not after more than ten years can we sit together amicably. The road to peace is still open, but we need to have the concepts right in our minds and then to talk; we need to talk with full understanding and consciousness. At the moment, the way to peace is not evident even in theory, let alone its realization in practice. We need to explore the way of peace, and to pave that way, so that people may go along that way with confidence. People have certain preconceptions which are not voiced, but which are more operative than any written and signed contract: they have implicitly conspired that since the time Muslims lost the right guided state, and since they fell into a state of compulsion in politics (with the coming of the Umayyads), it was right for regaining that upright state to resort to compulsion and treachery. No one said that, as it is not right to be announced, but everyone had it in mind, and it was transmitted to everyone, until it has settled down as the most natural thing. Not until now can we dare face that implicit complicity; we do not recall it to consciousness to be healed of it, or to start to be healed of it. But we have really to get back to that right guided approach in understanding the words of the Lord when He says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion: uprightness stands out clear from error: whoever rejects taghoot 'the tyrannical transgressor' and believes in God hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks;" (2:256). In the above verse when Allah says: 'Let there be no compulsion in religion,' this directive is indicative of what distinguishes uprightness from error or misguidance; that compulsion IS misguidance. That becomes more manifest when we go to the third clause, 'whoever rejects taghoot and believes in God …', for the taghoot believes in compulsion; indeed his life, survival, and very existence are based on compulsion. To reject that taghoot, and to believe in Allah, that is in Allah's religion, and to believe in His command to abstain from compulsion – that is grasping the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. Another aspect of that implicit and misguided complicity, something that has spread until it is taken to be for granted is that if truth and falsehood are given equal chance, falsehood will have the better of truth, that truth will be defeated, and people will choose falsehood, rather than truth. Now first of all this is mistrusting God; it is about an attitude like this that the Qur'an says: "moved by wrong suspicions of God – suspicions due to ignorance;" (3:154) and it says: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost;" (41:23) And secondly, God says about truth and falsehood, that "truth has now arrived, and falsehood perished: for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish;" (17:81) The Qur'an never says that once falsehood arrives, truth will perish, but it is settled in our hearts that it is so. Somehow it has been inspired into our hearts over the centuries to dread falsehood in an unnatural and unwarranted degree. The Qur'an says: "Say: 'the truth has arrived, and falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything;" (34:49). And it says: "Nay, we hurl the truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood doth perish;" (21:18) It is mistrusting God; it is also mistrusting truth and Islam, when we suppose that if people are given the choice, they will abandon truth and Islam. It is in the third place mistrusting man, when we think that he is more inclined to evil than to goodness. But man does not have peace of heart except when he chooses goodness; it is when men sink into ignorance that their bad deeds will seem good in their eyes. Therefore, it is our duty to deliver the message in the clearest way. When things are quite manifest, then those who insist on adhering to falsehood, the condemned, will be a small minority. It is God's law that the majority of people will choose truth once it is made absolutely clear. [Translator's note: Mr. Sa'eed has skipped the reply to Question Two, without explicitly saying why. It seems that he assumed that he had said enough about it in the course of his answer to Question One.] 97 96 2009-08-23T09:38:24Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress? A. 1: Let me admit at the outset that you succeed in what many have failed to do, by drawing from me answers to your questions. The reason you succeed is the perceptiveness with which you enter my world; you really touch on the finer details of that world. The points you raise do really reveal a mind that can appreciate the issues that keep preoccupying my mind. Thank you for all that. Now you ask me about the major stages in my intellectual progress. It is an important and critical question, but can I do justice to it? Can one ever remember the circumstances that directed his intellectual growth? I don't think so. Nevertheless, the attempt is worthwhile; one in fact should try to trace such influences. Let me begin with this incident: I once returned home when I was in the second grade, having learned at school how to pray, and what to say in the final sitting position. The textbook we used at school mentioned two versions of the 'testifying supplication' for that position, one reported by Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, and the other reported by Ibn Mas'ud, another companion. Feeling puzzled why two different versions existed, I asked my mother on arriving home what was behind this difference. So she peered long at the comment on the two supplications and then said, pointing out one of them: "This is the right version which you should learn, for it is the one chosen by the chief of jurists, Abu Hanifah [the founder of one of the four schools of Islamic law, madhab in Arabic]; as for the other, it is for the followers of the Shafiite madhhab'." She did not feel the need for any further explanation. As for me, I did not dare to follow the matter up with my teacher or my father: like other children, I dared to ask my mother what I did not dare to ask a teacher or a father; but even with her, I felt too shy to persist any further. But it did occur to me then that if a child happened to be of the Shafiite madhab, and had returned home and asked his mother, she would say: "We are followers of the Great Imam, al-Shafii," and would have pointed out the other version as the more authentic one. Now I can see that that elementary and childish inquiry is still the philosophical stumbling block which is not yet satisfied by men. The difference of course is that I went on later to inquire what should be one's reference in determining not only the Hanafite from the Shafi'ite madhab; nor even the Sunni from the Shiite position; but what should be one's reference in determining whether the believers or non-believers were nearer the truth. I find that this also relates to your fourth question, in which you ask: How would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an? It is really hard work to bring to the reader's notice all the wilderness I had to trudge through until I came to perceive that history should be recognized as a source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century; I was all the time grappling with the question: How do I know that I know what I know? It was like a worshipper who seeks the right direction of 'qibla, or Mecca' to direct his face to while performing his prayer. How to know that there is a truth to seek, that life is not without a North Pole. Now I realize that the ignorant person who says: Thank God that we were born into the true religion; praise be to God that we were not born in the wrong place – that this poor soul is not in much worse position than the proud philosophers in the past and present who feel that their philosophy has brought them face to face with nihilism and nothingness. That man is controlled by his culture is true, and the Prophet, peace be upon him says: "Every human is born ready to follow the straight path. It is his parents who make of him a Christian, a Jew, a Magian, or whatsoever." One's environment is very often a source of knowledge to him; one's family and ancestors are very often his reference for choosing his creed, and this way is condemned in the Qur'an. An individual's social milieu or his ancestors may not be his criterion for knowing right from wrong in the Qur'an. And again I feel that this brings up your eighth question, in which you say: Are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? Does not this remind you of a line of Persian poetry cited by the previous Iranian president Khatami, which says: "Well, can you, when you bask in the soft breeze, sense the darkness and bewilderment we go through!" I say this in view of the difficulty I went through from one level to the next. As for the level I reached, though I cannot claim I have gone beyond, is breaking free from the control of the fathers. Let met be clear about the authority of ancestors: to hold them up as an intellectual reference is a mistake; but it is another mistake to ignore them. They are human beings, not less and not more; as we recite in the Qur'an: "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" (5:18). I wish someone would write a whole book focused on this verse, "You are humans, just like the humans He has created;" though I have little hope of myself writing such a book, in the way I have written several books focused on Qur'anic verses. The doubt about following fathers comes from the fact that without the fathers we are nothing. You are quite right when you say: do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive and without any roots? When one is not confined to what he has received from the fathers, he may pick up or devise an idea that is quite revolutionary. I say this here because I remember what Malek Bennabi once wrote, I think in a footnote on his book, The Birth of A Community: History is change; it is development. That is so because a time that passes without bringing forth change and development is a dead time. Then he cited the example of ants and bees, that those species have had no change in millions of years, so that if you eliminate a million years of their history, the latter part can just connect to the earlier part with no loss detected. This is not so in the development of the human species. Man is a process, for Allah adds to creation as He pleases [ref. to the Qur'an, 30:1]; and He creates things of which we are not aware. How dense is the darkness in which we live, and how heavy the shackles we bear! According to the Qur'an, Allah sends His prophets so that He releases men from their heavy burden, and from the yokes that are upon them [7:157]. But let me move on to another juncture in my progress: One day, late in the nineteen forties, and I was at that time a student at al-Azhar University, it occurred to my mind that our instructors taught us that we were drawing close to the end of the world, that no day but would be worse than the previous day. And so I reasoned, if so, if the faith we believed in was fated to be deteriorating day by day, why should one dedicate himself to serving such a failed doctrine? Indeed, had not man's need for religion been so deep, he would have given up all faith; but it so happens that no matter how badly people disfigure religion, men's need remains deeper than any distortions: man knows deep in his heart that this world is not there for no reason. Man knows deep at heart that truth is to be fulfilled, but because for many of us no justice seems to be realized in this world, some wait to see it realized on the Day of Judgment. But where, I went on to think, did this idea, that the world was coming to a near end, originate? Did the Qur'an teach this? So I scanned the Qur'an to check, but I found nothing of that. Instead, I saw in the Qur'an, "Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good shall see it;" (99:7) "We will, without doubt, help Our apostles and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the witnesses stand forth;" (40: 51) "If any think that God will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling, and cut himself off;" (22:15) and I found, "God has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of a surety, grant them in the land, inheritance of power;" (24:55). All the verses of the Qur'an, however, were not enough. When a society ceases to develop and grow, when it is no longer in a 'process', it will be despondent: there will settle in it the idea of the time coming to an end. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, I do not have the brilliant style that matches the issues I am handling. Hence, I use many words to express so little; and it is not enough that questions are intriguing, and that I try to satisfy you, but I must be fair to the reader and help him. The Muslim World has strayed into the wilderness long enough. It is taking too long to walk out of it: people like you and me we feel that the Muslim World is too slow to awaken; although for those who relish watching our sleep, they feel that the Muslim World is moving too fast towards gaining comprehension. Now to get back to the point of ancestors, without the ancestors' experiences we have got to return to the cave or the forest. At that time man only gathered or hunted his food, before agriculture. It was what we have inherited from the ancestors that put us where we are. Therefore, the right attitude to the ancestors is that expressed in this verse from the Qur'an, "Such are they from whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds;" (46:16). But we are still unable to go beyond our fathers, and I may only turn to God, to pray: "O, Lord! Gant us light! Enable us to see things for what they are, and not as our forefathers saw them!" For fourteen centuries things have, in the hands of our ancestors, gone down and down, and they have walked from one defeat to the next, and each defeat was worse than the previous one. Let me be clear here, that I have as much respect as any other Muslim does: They did their part; they did not have all the history we have to shed light on our way. They should be forgiven their shortcomings, but we are not justified in not getting rid of the negative aspects of our life; we are not justified in failing to comprehend how God keeps expanding creation, for God 'adds to creation as He pleases,' (the Qur'an, 35:1). It is now the others who fulfill this expansion of creation, and it is God's will that any people who endeavor, should reap the fruit of their effort, as the Qur'an says: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men and men by turns." (3:140) The text, as we use it, works to block our understanding of things in the world and analyzing history: while the right approach is to view history and the revealed text as inseparable partners, for no offspring may be begotten without both parties doing their part. We need to relate this issue of past generations to another point. Writing, the art of transmitting concepts and experience with symbols, is a new technology in the life of mankind. It is a decisive advance of man over all the other living beings. All other species possess all their abilities and bear their behaviors within their genes; but it is not so in the case of man: when he is born, a human being does not possess within his genes all his behaviors, nor is his future encoded there. A child is born knowing nothing, and from the moment it is born, it begins to learn things about how to behave in life. It is true what the ancients called man, 'a talking animal'; man transmits experience with words. Although we have no way of specifying the exact time when man started to talk, we do have exact knowledge about when man started to read and write; it is so because the written material, in contrast with spoken words, are inscribed on stone, on skin, or on paper; and we have such inscribed texts dating five thousand years back. We need to think of the written text as a great thing, as a sacred achievement, for it is the technique which has helped man to preserve his experience. Before writing, mankind's experience used to vanish and perish – the human brain dies with the death of man, and any experience that it may have acquired is bound to die with its death. For eons of time, man lived in an oral period, and God did not reveal any of His books until man was able to read and write. It is perhaps a reminder of this that the last prophet, Muhammad, was illiterate. Having a book is a stage beyond that of just assigning names to things around man. Therefore, God does not say about Adam that He had revealed a book to him; he just says, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) Man was enabled to utter words, and give vocal symbols to concepts; his ability to give names to things indicates his gaining knowledge of things, and of whatever fresh knowledge is revealed to his mind, physical or moral. In this way we understand, 'And He taught Adam the names 'and nature' of all things;' (2:31) not that God taught Adam all the languages of the world. Later, man learned how to inscribe symbols on paper, and was able to write the Qur'an. It was in the Qur'an, too, that the first revealed word, "Read," (96:1) was connected with this technique, the ability to write: the word 'read', which was the first word to be revealed to Prophet Muhammad, refers to this ability to encode words into graphic symbols, and then to decipher the same symbols when reading a text. A symbol is valuable in that it has no independent sense: it is we human beings who relate the sense to the referent by bearing a sense in our mind, and being aware that a specific word refers to something in the world. This brings us to consider texts: A text is of no value except to the extent it is related to real things; at the same time, what we experience in the real world gets lost unless and until it is recorded in a text, and that shows how essential a text is in the life of man. Texts are invaluable in the life of men; more than that, several techniques are being discovered and applied to give permanence to uttered words, not only words but visual representations of the person who utters the words. It is very laboriously and slowly that we begin to understand the relationship between a text and the real world, or the reference and the referent. This is so vital that Allah uses the real world to testify to the authenticity of His Scripture. In this verse, "We will show them Our Signs in the regions of the earth and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth;" (41:53) it is shown that when one goes along in the light of both the text and the actual facts of the world, he will never be deluded. A revealing incident here is that men were disputing and even fighting incessantly about the nature of the sun and earth, about which orbited which; and the revealed text in their hands did not help in putting an end to that disputation. What actually brought that dispute to an end was when men turned their look upwards and saw for themselves how the earth orbited the sun. By exploring God's signs in the world, and exploring the nervous system, the reservoir which stores all the experiences, we can handle the revealed text properly. Unless we perceive and acknowledge that relation between the revealed words (the text), and the reality, (which is discussed in the text), unless we take both, we will go one straying in the wilderness and condemning each other. Muhammad Abduh had a decisive effect on my progress. So had Muhammad Assad (in his book, Islam at Crossroads.) I began to see that one may come upon new solutions for problems, all problems. What mainly drove me to believe in this was looking again at this verse of the Qur'an: "And He subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth;" (45:13) I began to see that the world was there to do our bidding; and when the world does not obey our command, then it is not the world's fault; it is rather ours. I must assert here that my progress was slow; it took ideas such a long time to develop. At the same time I felt that there were moments of insight. About the time I graduated from al-Azhar University, in the mid-fifties of the twentieth century, I was all ears and eyes; always on the alert to hear and see new things, and to analyze what I saw and heard. It was about that time that I came upon a book by Malek Bennabi, Conditions of Revival, and it was such a major juncture in my intellectual progress. I did not understand it well the first time, but I did sense that there was here an unusual approach to things, a singular way of analyzing things. And so I read and read: later I pondered over every word of every book by Malek Bennabi. One of his books, The Afroasian Idea, I read maybe more than thirty times. I would reflect on ideas and bring them together, to analyze and compare. The greatest idea in Malek Bennabi is that of colonisibility, a people's proneness to be victims of imperialism. It is a vital concept, and it is our responsibility to develop the idea and carry it beyond where Bennabi left it. This idea really echoes the Qur'anic verse: "Whatever evil befalls you is from your own soul;" (4:79) What Bennabi was saying was very different from what we used to hear from al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, and even Iqbal. It was such a jolt to me when he refrained from blaming the enemies, the colonizer, the imperialist, the crusader, the Zionist, the freemason, and all the other foes. No other speaker, Islamist or secularist, but charged the others and blamed them for what befell us. In contrast, the speakers would very little and in such a low voice speak, if they spoke at all, of our faults and mistakes, the factors that enabled others to manipulate us. It was such a giant step to turn our attention to our own responsibility. It was also another surprise when he said that whenever Muslims meet in conferences they would put forth the Palestinian problem as being the Muslim World's prime problem, and that, as Malek Bennabi declared, was a mistake – our real malaise was colonisibility, and our backwardness; Palestine, Cashmere, Eritrea, etc. were no more than symptoms of the disease. And it was no little shock when he said: Colonisibility hit us long before the colonizer ever thought of colonizing us. It came to take shape not in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow, but it took shape under the domes of mosques in the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Teheran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, and Kairawan, along the Tangier – Jakarta axis. I felt the value of the curve he drew of the progress of the Muslim culture, starting with the Angel's call to the Prophet, at Hira Cave, a first phase which came to an end at Siffeen Battle; a second phase which came to an end with Ibn Khaldoun; and then a descending phase which resulted in the retrogression and colonization. It was such an eye-opener to me when he said: A person who speaks now without being conscious of what additions were brought forth to human knowledge in the twentieth century must be the object of derision and mockery. Do you see, Abdul-Jabbar, how slow we are to come to understand things? We not only are averse to analyzing the factors of our backwardness, but we camouflage those factors with the best appearance, and we are very often prepared to die in defending them rather than change. ==8== 96 41 2009-08-22T12:25:22Z Admin 1 Blanked the page wikitext text/x-wiki 41 40 2009-05-06T08:01:41Z Admin 1 /* fot */ wikitext text/x-wiki ==Jawdat Said, What are the main stages in your intellectual progress?== {{Current Islamic Issues}} Thank, you, brother Rifa'ee, for this question. I feel obliged to let you know that it is not with great readiness that I usually answer questions. However, your questions seemed to me to reflect a sound comprehension of my intellectual endeavor, that you have already fathomed the nooks and crevices of that world. I likewise compliment your journal for your efforts in fostering thought. Now when you inquire about the stages on my intellectual path, I find your question significant and subtle; but can I ever give a satisfactory answer to such question? Can anyone? Indeed, no matter how I try to reconstruct with any exactness the influences on my development, I don't think I can do justice to that. However, the mere attempt is not unuseful; it is our duty to try to recollect such factors. Let me mention for instance that one day, and I was in the second elementary grade, we had taken a class about prayer, and had learned what a worshipper had to say during the last sitting; the textbook listed two versions of 'al-tashahhud, the set supplication in that posture', one reported by Ibn Abbas, and another reported by Ibn Mas'ood (two companions of the Prophet.) Anyway, I did not have at the time the experience of distinguishing one from the other. So, on my arrival home, I asked my mother to tell me about the difference. So she peered long, and at last she said, indicating one version: "It is this version that we adhere to; it is this that the Great Imam, Abu Hanifah, has chosen; this is our way, and the other version belongs to the Shafi'ite school." That was her answer; so can you imagine the impact on my tender mind of that answer! At that time we did not have the boldness to ask; we felt too shy to ask the teacher or the father – but we did ask the mother. That is why it was my mother that I turned to, and she asserted that we adhered to the version chosen by the Great Imam Abu Hanifah. But the question that occurred to my mind after that I did not dare to declare even to my mother. It occurred to me that should a child from the Shafi'ite school of law return home and ask his mother, she would reply that they adhered to the version chosen by the Great Imam, Al-Shafi'ee. So I started to wonder how one could distinguish between what was right and what was wrong; I may add that that early enquiry is still the basic philosophical question that the world is yet to solve. Later, of course, the question was not just how to discriminate between the various sunni or shi'ite schools; it widened to an inquiry about the different religions, to believers and non-believers, to a general inquiry about the way to finding the truth. That childish and at the same time philosophical question has led me to what you ask in your fourth question, about my taking history to be a source of knowledge, besides the Qur'an. But I find it quite hard to bring within the reader's reach how it came by that I traversed all the wildernesses until I came to take history to be the source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century, mauling over the question: How can I come to know, and how can I know that I know? I ranged my vision over the skies seeking the qibla (metaphorically speaking, seeking the north star of truth.) That inquiry is a human one. Every human being must encounter that same question, the mind-boggling question: how to know the truth in all that ocean? How to get beyond empty talk? There have been people who tried to find their outlet in asserting that the truth was unattainable; there were such people in ancient Greek philosophy and in modern philosophy; and they have bumped into the wall of annihilism. And the simple uneducated man grapples with the same question; you hear the ignorant say: had we been born in such and such land, then our religion would have been that other religion – they do not deny it. It is as a hadith (tradition) of the Prophet's puts it: "Each newborn is born receptive to truth (upon the fitrah); it is his parents who make of him a Jew or a Christian [or whatever]." We find here the culture and patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility (Aaba'iyyah in Arabic) as the source of knowledge. We find the Qur'an condemning the forefathers' being the source of knowledge. The ancestors and the environment should not be the source of knowledge. Rather, the situation must be reversed: An individual must possess the criterion of right and wrong, and then determine where the forefathers and environment were right and where they were wrong. Here, inadvertently, we touch on your question 8, about "patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility", and whether that would mean breaking away with the Islamic heritage. Perhaps the last intellectual stage I reached, and I do not claim to have issued from, was the discarding of the ancestors' authority. This issue of the ancestors' authority bears a lot of analysis – I mean the intellectual authority of ancestors, aba'iyyah, (i.e. patriarchal glorification and infallibility.) Indeed, to accept ancestors as a source of knowledge is a problem, but the consequences are equally dire should we ignore them; they are rather human beings, as we read about human beings in the Qur'an: "You are but men, - of the men He has created (5, 18)". You know my habit of choosing clauses of Qur'anic verses to be titles of my books; and I wish I could write a book entitled: " You are but men, - of the men He has created (5, 18)". This dilemma of idolizing ancestors harks backs to the fact that without the ancestors we would be nothing; it is in this context that you asked, very rightly, " Is not any growth without roots an illusion?" You see how ideas are called up through association; your questions link to each other, and on to other topics. You remind me of a revolutionary idea that I came across in a book by Malik bin Nabi (which, it seems to my mind to be The Birth of A Society), when he, in the course of a note introducing history, said: "History is change and development, since the passing time in which no development or growth takes place is a dead time;" and he illustrated with examples from the communities of ants and bees. In millions of years their life has remained unchanged; should we have eliminated a million years from their life, and pasted the earlier to the latter part, we would not have felt anything missing; but this is not so in the case of man. Man is continually in the process of being shaped; we read in the Qur'an, "He adds to Creation as He pleases (35, 1)", " He creates other things of which you have no knowledge (16, 8)". Well, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, how badly we are in need of the truthful word and light! How deep is the darkness and dimness in which we live! How heavy are the shackles that pull us down and impede our progress and mobility! We read that the task of a prophet is " He releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them (7, 157)". Another intellectual juncture in my life took place towards the end of the forties, and I was then a student in Al-Azhar, in Cairo. It occurred to me one day that our instructors seemed to suggest to us that the end of time was drawing near, and that there would be not a day but worse than the previous day; so I reasoned to myself: "How can I devote myself to a system doomed to be worse today than it was yesterday, and worse tomorrow than it is today?" Indeed, had man's need for religion been less compelling, then religions would have been abandoned; as it is, no matter how twisted and warbled religions are represented, they remain grounded in the human intuition that this world is not there for nothing, that it exists in order to establish the truth, although for some the truth is put off until the Hereafter, since they cannot see it as feasible in this world. Such reasoning brought me to wonder whence that idea of "the end of time" stemmed? Was there in the Qur'an such idea? I did read the Qur'an with that question in mind, but could not find it; instead I found " Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, shall see it (99, 7)", " We will, without doubt, help our Our Messengers and those who believe (40, 51)", " If any think that Allah will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling and cut himself out (22, 15)", and " Allah has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of surety, grant them, in this land, inheritance of power (24, 55)"; but when societies cease to see the 'process' of forming, when they cease to develop, they are frustrated. It is then that the idea of the end of time prevails; it is true in their case that time has come to an end. Well, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, I am not one of those who can express their thought concisely and precisely; hence my many words which do not bear much sense. I find that I am addressing you and not the reader – it is so because it was you who stirred things and touched some soft spots and unhealed wounds. The Muslim World has lived and is still living in wilderness. It is rising most slowly out of its slumber; that is how it appears to us who long to see the Muslim World shake off its sleep. But it does not appear like that to those who gloat over our sleep – for them we are moving fast towards wakefulness and understanding. Well, brother, it is a difficult problem, that of ancestors. Without the forefathers, we are nothing, since it is the accumulated experiences of past generations that has brought us where we are; without them we must return to the cave and the food-gathering stage, when man lived in the forest, unable to cultivate the land. On the other hand, to be content with what the ancestors have left us, to stay where they have put us, is also a halting of history, and a return to the cave, though it is a different cave and in a different sense – it is bringing time to a standstill. The right relationship with the ancestors is as expressed in the Qur'anic verse, " From whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds (46, 16))". But we seem to have put ourselves in a grave predicament – we are unable to go beyond the ancestors. Give us light, O God, give us light! We need to see things not in the way they were seen by our forefathers. It is a fact that over fourteen centuries the ancestors have been declining; it is a fact that with every new defeat the previous defeats appear slight. Please do not take me wrong; I do not have any malice towards the ancestors; they did do their share; they did not have before them for guidance the history the we have before us; we should forgive them, but we should rid ourselves of the shortcomings we have inherited from them. We have to perceive that God's creation is a continuous affair (see the Qur'anic verse: He adds to Creation as He pleases '34, 1'.) As it is, those who forged ahead have been other nations, and the Qur'an teaches us that they must have the fruit of their effort: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men by turns (3, 140)". We still fail to comprehend the realities of life and history – they seem to mean nothing to us; that is because we think that the Scripture precludes reference to them. The truth is that history and the Scripture work as a pair, like man and wife; life will be barren with either of them in isolation of the other. The technology of writing and transmission of experience is a new phase in the life of man – man is indeed unique among living things in the world; other species have the germ of their behaviour in their genes; but man is not born with all his behaviour and future predetermined as is the case with the rest of living things. A human being is born knowing nothing, and learns his behaviour after that. Logicians used to say that man is a speaking animal, in the sense that he transmits experience through spoken words. We do not know when precisely man started to talk, but we do know with precision when he started to write. We know that exactly because man left his traces on stones, parchments, and paper five thousand years ago; this is what we call a text. There is something sacred about writing because it is this technical innovation that preserved human experience. Before writing, experiences were lost with the death of the person; an individual stored his experience in his brain, and the brain goes with the death of the human being. Eons of time passed in which man lived in the oral stage. God did not reveal a book until people learned reading and writing (incidentally, Muhammad, the last prophet, could not read and write.) What God says about Adam is " And He taught Adam the names of all things (2, 31);" He says He taught him the names, not revealed a book to him. When man discovered speech, he started to give vocal symbols to concepts, he started to name things. Man can name something or a concept after gaining the experience and understanding; that is the way with all new physical and intellectual additions. Therefore when God says: " And He taught Adam the names of all things ", it does not mean He taught him all languages. Later, man acquired that skill of writing. The first word of the first sura of the Qur'an, which is God's final message to mankind is 'Read (sura 96)', an indication that the written symbol has no inherent value; it is we human beings who provide the specific relationship between the symbol and the referent. This puts us face to face with the problem of the text – a text, any text, has no value except in so far as it relates to the actual state of things; at the same time, the actual state of things will soon evaporate unless it is given some permanence in the text. In this way the text has acquired a vital role in man's life; man is unable to live without texts; and the techniques of storing knowledge have not been confined to writing; later the voice and the various sounds were added to it; and, later still, the visual dimension was introduced. It is very, very slowly that we begin to appreciate the relation between the text and the real state of things, or the name and the referent. It is for such consideration that the Qur'an teaches us that if we get to know the world we shall believe in the Scripture's truth. It is so because to know the Book in isolation of the world we shall be misled – we read: " Soon will We show them Our signs (42, 53)", " but they threw it [the Book] behind their backs (3, 187)". For instance, if we continued to argue about cosmology on the basis of the revealed evidence, our argument could have lasted for ever; what cut the argument short is not the text, but explorations of the sky. There are so many facts in the earth and in the whole world that provide abundant evidence; the Qur'an urges us to examine both the evidence in the world around us and the evidence in our own being, in the nervous systems which stores experience, 'evidence of the selves in Qur'an terms'. Unless we realize and acknowledge that relationship between the revealed text (the Scripture) and the world of matter, which is the referent of the Scripture, we shall continue to dwell in the wilderness and to charge each other with blasphemy. Another juncture in my intellectual life has been the reading of one line written by Muhammad Abdoh. He wrote: "Let those who lash out against religion lash out against their love of worldly pleasures." These few words seemed to tear apart another taboo; it dawned in on me that we could understand things in a new light. It was also shedding new light on things when I read a book, Islam at Crossroads, by Muhammad Assad. I realized again that things that seemed intractable really had solutions. I was beginning to realize that all problems could be solved. The crowning evidence of all that was when I read a verse of the Qur'an: " And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth: behold, in that are Signs indeed for those who reflect (45, 13)." The phrase, "subjected to you" signifies offering a service without compensation. It means that we should be able to give the command, and have the universe obey; if the universe does not obey our command, then there is something wrong, not in the world, but in us. The development of ideas, however, was very slow, though there were glowing moments. I was a student at the time, with my eyes and ears quite open, receiving signals that kept bombarding on my senses all the time; at the same time I analyzed those messages. Then in the middle of the fifties of the twentieth century I graduated from Al-Azhar. Around that time, I happened to come across a book by Malik bin Nabi, The Conditions of Revival. That was a really major stage in my growth. I did not at first reading understand what Malik was driving at, but I did realize that here was a new method of seeing and analyzing things. So I kept reading and reading, I read every line with great concentration; I brought points together, peered closely, then from a distance, then reflected and reflected. For instance, I read his book The Afro-Asian Idea more than thirty times. I taught it to others, starting with the chapter, 'The Afro-Asian Idea and the Muslim World'. The idea in Malik bin Nabi that had perhaps the most impact on my mind was 'proneness to being colonized'. This concept is a massive and pivotal one, and must be developed and elaborated beyond where Malik left it; it really is an echo of a Qur'anic concept "Whatever evil happens to you, is from your own soul (4, 79)." Malik was striking a note discordant with what we used to hear from Al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdoh, or even Iqbal. It was really a shaking, a violent shaking when he reversed the direction from blaming things on the enemy, the colonizer, imperialism, the crusaders, Zionism, free-masonry, and all the other enemies – to blaming ourselves. Indeed, all those who stood up to discuss things, religious, agnostic, or atheist, would blame the others for our suffering, some or all of the above enemies. How muffled and murmured was the voice, if at all there was a voice, that spoke of our ills that give the others the chance to exploit us. Malik's was a giant step; it would throw the whole situation in a different cast; the responsibility for our ills was now put in the right place. Malik was similarly galvanizing when he said: "When people in the Muslim World meet in conferences to discuss problems, they deem Palestine to be the prime problem of the Muslim World; this is a mistake, because, proneness to being colonized and the backwardness in which we live are the real disease, while Palestine, Eritrea, Cashmere, etc. are no more than symptoms of the real disease." I did have a jolt when he said: "The 'proneness to being colonized' took root in our world long before it occurred to the colonizer to come and occupy our land." He described a curve which he started with the emergence of the Islamic idea, from the call at the Cave of Hira' to the Battle of Siffin; and then to Ibn Khaldoon, and then it declines to colonization and backwardness. He was unusual and astonishing when he said: "the proneness to being colonized did not take shape in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow. It rose and took shape under the mosques' domes of the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Al-Qairawan, in sum across the Tanjah-Jakarta axel." He proved himself to be very perceptive of the source of our predicament when he said: A person who is ignorant of what the twentieth century has added to human knowledge will bring disgrace and derision to himself every time he opens his mouth to say something. So you see, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, how slowly we grow, indeed at a snail's speed. It is not merely exceeding sloth with us; it is that we attach a sacred meaning to the sources of our backwardness, and we are even prepared to die in the way of preserving things the way they are. So let me remember other stations in my intellectual growth. One of these has certainly been Muhammad Arkoun. He is a man that can talk in terms other than the sacred or condemned. (Malik used to say that the Muslim World can perceive things to be either pure and sacred or vile and condemned; that one can pass from one state to the other in a moment – a fighter for the truth now can very easily be said to be a traitor the next minute; a believer now can be condemned as a heretic and infidel the next day.) My experience with Iqbal has been quite different from that with Malik. The latter was an electric engineer; the former was a poet, a mystic poet, who communed with human beings and (in his imagination) with the jinn, and soared in the heavens, having communion with angels and Redwan, custodian of the Paradise; he argued with the colonizer and the devil. Iqbal used to say: "My vision can perceive the very pulse of stars, and the blood circulation of the full moon." He fathomed the world, quantitively and qualitatively; to him man is the arm of the Divine Will. It was he who taught us that though the Qur'an and Islam appeared before the age of science they did herald the scientific way. It is he who awakened us to the value of the signs of the world around us and the world inside us when he said: The Qur'an counts the world around us and the world inside as a source to indicate the truth. It was he who illuminated, and still illuminates more, the Qur'anic verse: “Soon will We show them Our Signs in the regions of the world, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses all things (41, 53)?” It was Iqbal who fathomed the significance of the 'seal of prophethood' and its importance. It is history which will reveal the importance of that idea. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the last of prophets, but how deeply do we realize the significance of that fact? The whole line of prophets, from Noah until Muhammad, appeared within a period of five thousand years; that is the story of prophethood from beginning to end. But how will people be after a million years? Iqbal says in this connection: It was right that prophethood should come to a halt, because the signs in the world around and the world inside were coming to be the source of revealing the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me discriminate between right and wrong. That was when Iqbal said: the way to discriminate and assess the various systems, religions, philosophies and civilizations, is to study the kind of individual who is the outcome of any particular religion or philosophy. Iqbal's scope was limited from the factual aspect; and yet, his intellectual scope was supreme. His perceptive vision solved for me the problem of shari'ah; he had massive ideas in this respect – he said that God's shari'ah, or law, is justice; whatever is shown to be just is God's shari'ah; it is around the axel of justice that the shari'ah revolves. But as to the details of jurisprudence they vary as the time varies; and people can come close or drive far from justice. He said this in the course of analyzing the history of the Turks and the Turkish thinkers during the Ottoman revolution. There must be other original thinkers, but the few that I had access to all allot to man a vital place and give him a high role. So what must I say next? How much do you discern of all that, and all the darkness surrounding us, and all the internecine killings among us? So where is the lamp? Where, in Heidegger's word, is the light? Let us say that so far I have tried to answer two of your questions, One and Two, that is, (1) the intellectual stations and (2) the intellectual components. At the beginning, my affiliation was with 'salafi' school (doctrine of first two or three generations of Islam;) another stage was with Al-Afghani and Abdoh; next it was Iqbal and Malik bin Nabi. Arkoun opened up the world of modernism. That was a challenging stop, since the West occupies a predominant place in the world; it would not be easy to discover its drawbacks. It was Iqbal again who helped me there; that is when he said, addressing the West: "That civilization of yours will be like the mother bird which will suffocate its little newborn; that is because the nest which is built on a feeble branch will not stay long. Your fire has not scorched me, because I follow Abraham's faith. Your glamour does not dazzle me, for I have lined my eyes with Al-Madinah antimony." How to deal with the West is a problem; what we should do is to accept their best production and to bypass their blunder. What happens is that modernism is being served to us wholesale, with its good and bad aspects, and the problem with many of us is that they would either take it to be no more than delusion and corruption, and others would not and will not turn their attention to the Westerners' innovations and what avenues they have opened for mankind. Indeed, the Westerners have not only invented transportation means to replace the donkey, the mule, the horse and the camel; they have found a way for changing a ruler without bloody struggles. This latter is a more remarkable achievement accomplished in the West than the material things we are so keen to buy, to buy rather than to produce even today. We show no interest in the transferring of government in a civilized way; we are not yet ready for that. Not many among us, secularist or Islamicist, believe in the power of ideas, that it is better to persuade people than to intimidate them. We are still below the level of acquiring the Western democracy, where governments are transferred through persuasion, though there is an amount of fraud, rather than through overpowering with the whip, with iron and fire. This democracy is a really new thing in the world, although it is also old from another angle. Muslims did have the upright way of rule, 'Al-Rushd' in Islamic terms, and when they lost that they somehow felt that something enormous was lost – as one Muslim scholar put it: "Would you like to have the Caesarian way of rule, every time a Caesar is gone another Caesar replaces him?" But then mankind marched on, for it is God's law that He enhances creation with new creations; He creates new things, as new means of transportation were created to replace the donkey, the mule and the horse. The modern innovations have revolutionized people's conception of the universe; people's concept of the sun rotating around the earth, and the earth as the centre of the universe, this geocentrism, has all gone. People received that new concept with great alarm; men were ready to have others put to death, and to sacrifice their own life, rather than to let go of the old concept of things. This cosmological revolution was the beginning of all modernism; a new picture of the world was being drawn. There were then the steam engine, and the combustion engine, there were new means of transportation to replace the horse and the mule; new vehicles were being introduced that never occurred to the ancients, not even to their fancies. Then there was the telescope, and man could see the stars and constellations and galaxies. There was the microscope, and man was able to see the germs and the cause of many diseases and epidemics; man overcame many of those diseases and epidemics, and is still defeating others. But there was another Copernican revolution in sociology, although we have not yet perceived its impact. There has been a politico-socio-human revolution when men, not all but some, realized that the phenomenon of day and night did not come about by the rotation of the sun, but by the rotation of the earth. Before that, the sun appeared small, and so it was conceivable that it should run round us, but the earth appeared huge, and people did not even know its ends, so it was inconceivable that it should move; it had to be immobile. It is through a reflection on history that one gets to understand the social phenomena. We have seen great, very great monarchs, apparently irremovable, and even if assassinated, they were just replaced by similar monarchs. We have seen the nations ignorant, passive masses, without a voice, prostrating themselves before whoever happens to occupy the seat of rule. But then, on the heels of the cosmological revolution, there was a social revolution. Monarchs were dwindling in size; they are no more in the advanced world than relics that are preserved as a curious remnant of the past, some still holding their post, but it is void of any power. Power and rule have been transferred to the hands of nations, though very slowly, and the trend is spreading over the whole world. This is really a remarkable achievement in social life. The ordinary man seems to increase in stature; or, which is saying the same thing, his awareness of history has increased. People used to offer human sacrifices: It was Abraham who put a stop to offering human beings as sacrifices, and replaced that with a sheep. Indeed, I find in the Muslim ritual sacrifice of offering a sheep in devotion during the Greater Eid a symbol of the ovolution, the slow process in mankind’s comprehension. Another giant step forward initiated by Abraham was advanced during his argument with the tyrannical ruler who bragged: I can give life, and can give death. Abraham's reply was: " But it is Allah that causes the sun to rise from the East: do you then cause it to rise from the West, (2, 258)." It was a decisive reference to the laws of nature. If the infidel in Abraham's story is stunned, the whole world was similarly overwhelmed and dazzled by the social revolution announced during the 'Farewell Pilgrimage' by Prophet Muhammad, when he referred to Abraham and the cutting off of the practice of offering human sacrifices. He said: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was made from clay. No Arab has priority over a non-Arab, or a non-Arab over an Arab, no white over coloured or coloured over white, except through piety." He commanded that believers must not regress to a state of disbelief or aberration, cutting each other's throats. He admonished men to be kind in their dealing with women, who were in their custody, so to speak. Well, things have changed since then, in theory, though in practice the change has been all too slow. Well, I have digressed a lot from your questions. But then, your questions are focused on our Islamic, and human, crisis. It appears to me that we view things from the angle of texts, and those texts have been emptied of their significance, and it is our duty to give back to those texts their significance. The message of all the prophets has been one and the same, no matter how we denigrate Christianity or Judaism as supporting polytheism and racism. The messages themselves are the same in essence: the gist of all prophets' teaching is 'al-tawheed: the Oneness of God.' It is al-tawheed which, if realized, no sin is too serious, and, if violated, no devotion avails. Let's refer to the Qu'an again: " For We assuredly sent amongst every People a Messenger, with the command: 'Serve Allah, and eschew al-taghoot (16, 36)." For each people there was a messenger; and they all had the same message to convey: Worship God and shun the taghoot. Now the word 'taghoot' has not received due attention in the Islamic culture, in the commentaries on the Qur'an and the sunnah; it was conceived vaguely as synonymous with the devil or an idol. Now the root 'tagha' from which 'taghoot' is derived, has been used in God's command to Moses: " You go to Pharaoh, for he has indeed 'tagha: transgressed all bounds', "; in another verse about Pharaoh and his supporters " And with Pharaoh, Lord of Stakes; all these 'taghau: transgressed beyond bounds' in the lands (88, 10-11)." One can infer that Phaoah has been the archetypal 'taghoot'; the man who stood up for Pharaoh, Moses, is mentioned next in number only to God's name 'Allah', and Pharaoh himself is mentioned more than seventy times. This encounter between Moses and Pharaoh has been a confrontation with the greatest contemporary civilization. The Qur'an makes Pharaoh express all the attitudes and feelings of dictators, explicit and implicit. Equally, the Qur'an makes Moses utter his exhortations to a community that had succumbed to the dictator. The story is all there in the Qur'an, with various details from the same story sprinkled throughout the Qur'an, varying in length and detail. It is worth our while to study this story, to comprehend the reality of 'tughyan' (abstract noun from the same root as taghoot), its genesis and components. When the story of Moses and Pharaoh occupies such a place in the Qur'an, as all aspects of it are presented everywhere in the Qur'an, it must have the importance that justifies all that attention. Even a partial analysis of this story will take us some way to understanding the socio-political dilemma. Well, my respected friend Abdul-Jabbar, you have stirred my mind with your questions. This issue of tawheed: the Oneness of God, and idolatry, should not be viewed as a theological or metaphysical issue; it should rather be viewed as a social and human issue, with all its political and relational implications. The 'Tawheed: Oneness of God' was not unknown to the tribe of Quraish when they rejected the teachings of the Messenger; they believed in the Oneness of God in the same way we now believe. The conflict was about a society that gave to some individuals a prestige, exempting them from the rule of law (shari'ah). A society that applied the law to Fatimah (the Prophet's daughter) in exactly the same way as it was applied to any common Bedouin woman was inconceivable to all mankind at the time. But then, the law is even today not applied to all on an equal basis – we all see how the right of veto is accepted as lawful in the most distinguished organization in the world, and nobody resists that; rather those who are not given the prestige dream of being endowed with the same prestigious position; it is not that they wish to see that idolatry removed, with one leading 'taghoot' and many minor 'taghoots'. It is with such a concept in mind that Iqbal used to say that tawheed must not conceived of as the opposite of multiplicity, that is multiplicity of gods; it is rather the opposite of 'shirk: taking other gods beside God' in the sense that some people are exempted from the enforcement of law (or shari'ah), when some people are raised to a status above the shari'ah. When Pharaoh declared " I am your Lord, Most High (79, 24);" he meant that he was the sole source of legislation, as we read his declaration in the other verses: " I but point out to you that which I see myself; nor do I guide you but to the Path of Right;" or " No god do I know for you but myself (28, 38), " " If you put forward any god other than me, I will certainly put you in prison (26, 29), " when he says to his magicians: " Do you believe in Him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader, who has taught you magic! Be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm-trees: so you shall know for certain, which of us can give the more severe and more lasting punishment (20, 71)." There are in these stories landmarks that must point the way for us. In the same way as the chemist has his laws by which he understands the unification and dissolution of matter, man has the means to demolish and rebuild, and then rebuild and demolish in the social sphere; we have a support of this in the Qur'an: "Truly he succeeds that purifies it [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it (90, 9-10)". This is true in the present as it was true in the past. When God says of the sorcerers that they " they showed a great feat of magic (7, 116), " that their ropes and stick seemed to their eyes, with their sorcery, to be like crawling snakes – the missiles and warheads of today are the same as those ropes and sticks, both have chemical and atomic components. They can be under man's control, rather than have control over man. But indeed we have been bewitched; we fancy that those things can have control, but we forget that the rockets and missiles did not avail the Soviet Union and did not deter its collapse. They gave homage to those weapons in the Soviet Union, but the weapons did not come to their succour at the time of collapse. It is idolatry to put your confidence in the muscles rather than in an idea. Let's consider electricity and the atom; they are enormous energies, and they can give great service to man. In the past, electricity came down in the form of thunderbolts, but then man harnessed electricity, though in the past it had (in the form of thunderbolts) the upper hand over man. So many energies have been brought under man's service, it is so in innumerable ways. All those energies are at man's service. So it is a change in man's attitude that reversed the relationship, and brought those powers under his control. The greatest marvel has been what the prophets taught; they propounded a revolutionary new relationship among people, on the political and social levels, and a new economic relationship in which neither side loses, giving for free and taking for free. The prophets reversed the conventional relationship of power, and killing, the relationship of 'I give life and death (The Qur'an, 2, 258),' to 'I give life, but not death', from the relationship of killing in reaction to killing, to a relationship of refraining from killing. It has been a novel and unthought-of change, a complete reversal of things. That was the essence of causing men to replace the worshipping of men with a worshipping of the Lord of men. In this equation, God does not say: 'Kill the taghoot'; He says rather: " Eschew the taghoot (The Qur'an, 16, 36), "; God says: " Those who eschew the taghoot, and do not fall into its worship – and turn to Allah in repentance, - for them is Good News (39, 17), " " Allah is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are the taghoots: from light they will lead them into the depths of darkness (2, 257), " and " Those who believe fight in the cause of Allah and those who reject Faith fight in the cause of the taghoot (4, 76)." As we said, modernism started in cosmology, and then it appeared in social life, when people started to write about 'Voluntary Slavery', meaning that people began to realize that no one can enslave us unless we choose to yield; that no one can enslave us if we decide not to be enslaved. This is particularly true when there is a multitude; you cannot enslave a huge crowd except through sorcery and jugglery, as it is mentioned in the Qur'an: " So it seemed to him on account of their magic (20, 66)." It is through sorcery that people are being convinced that they can be put to death; this is a sorcery that prevails over our minds; we need now to change the intellectual atmosphere in which such illusions grow, to break the spell. It is through our writings that we make the sorcery possible, that we perpetuate our slavery. I sometimes say: what the prophets taught has not descended yet from the heaven to the earth; what the prophets taught is not to kill the taghoot; it is rather to refrain from killing when the taghoot commands you to kill. This subject has been neglected, not debated or explored; it may be right to say of this undiscussed subject, in the modern terminology that Arkoun uses, that it is unthought-of , or an unthinkable subject. But, again, the earth's rotation around the sun was at one time unthinkable, by the contemporary 'givens'. In the same way, it is unthinkable at this moment, that the solution lies in declining to carry out the command of killing. I just hope that we come out from the darkness of the unthinkable to the area of discussion and exploration and reflection and shedding light. Bilal, Sumayyah, Ammar and Yaser (Prophet's companions) succeeded in getting out of obeying the taghoot and complying with his commands. This indeed is the mainstay of realizing tawheed 'Onennes': to stop obeying the taghoot and to shun worshipping him. And that is why I say, rather than have the Muslim youth be put to death because they endeavour to kill someone, I urge them to be ready to receive execution, or to be imprisoned and perhaps tortured for refusing to kill. Isn't it odd that we inspire the youth to kill the taghoot? How many times did we have the taghoots killed, and had their graves abused? And then, they did not really disappear; their killers replaced them by becoming taghoots. How long will it take us to understand this? You see how the armies of all the world train their soldiers to obey without protest, inculcating that the authority takes the responsibility for the decision – this is human legislation. But in God's law, in the tawheed system, you may not obey any command if it clashes with God's command. The very first sura that was revealed from heaven directed a believer to disobey unjust decrees: "Do you see one who forbids a servant (of God) when he turns to pray … Nay, do not obey him: but bow down in adoration, and bring yourself the closer to Allah! (96, last few verses)." It is prohibited now in many Islamic states for soldiers to openly perform their prayer in their barracks. But a believer has to learn to obey when the command issued is in harmony with God's command and to disobey when the command is in conflict with God's command, as in the matter of prayer. This is knowledge that makes the individual realize that it in his power to effect change, with no loss for any party, with profit for all parties. A good deed here is rewarded with ten times its value. In the news we hear that the Turkish army dismissed more than thirty of the highest ranking offices for being indisciplined, in reference to their not concealing their worship when in their barracks. When you learn how to challenge the taghoot and perform your prayer; when you learn how to disobey the taghoot if he commands you to kill Muslims, who are just like you, then you will be a model for them to follow. You act upon " Nay, do not obey him (96, last verse)." The others are waiting for you to start, as you are waiting for them; so be the first to obey God and disobey the taghoot. Is it not odd how we keep silent at the troops which occupied Kuwait, treating them like heroes? It is this silence which made Arab troops be mobilized to defeat Iraq. Why don’t we learn to disobey the tyrants? They will persist in giving their commands of killing as long as the soldiers say: Yes, Sir! But Bilal exercised his freedom, he, formally a slave, who is supposed to obey his master. But Bilal learnt that he had another Master, a Master who had priority of obedience; so if the earthly master's commands accord with the Master's, then a Muslim will obey; if the earthly master's commands are in conflict with the Master's commands, then no obedience is due " Decree whatever you desire to decree (20, 72);" that has been the defiant attitude of Pharaoh's magicians. The issue of tawheed and idolatry has remained nebulous and vague; we have not fulfilled the injunction of spreading the word; indeed, how can we spread the word when we have not yet understood the message, nor taken responsibility for the message? The message of each one of the prophets has been, as asserted by the Qur'an: " Worship Allah and Eschew the taghoot (16, 36)"; likewise, we read in the Qur'an, " It has already been revealed to you, – as it was to those before you – 'If you were to join gods with Allah, truly fruitless will be your work in life, and you will surely be in the ranks of those who lose all spiritual good (39, 65)." Cannot we understand that our deeds have been in vain, how we are losers? Indeed, is there a nation anywhere in the world which is more of a loser than we are? Every day some kind of affliction befalls us that must make us feel disgraced. Indeed, we are disgraced to such a degree that we are unable to raise our heads before others. My reading of the world and the way I perceive it are different from others. Indeed, I find in the developments in the world a new light by which the Qur'an is illumined more than ever. It is that understanding that gives me support and provides me with the moral courage to face the world, and to speak out about what my mind can comprehend. It is a cogent sensibility of the accord of God's law in the world and God's law revealed in the Book. In fact, the laws of the world and the law taught in the Qur'an both emanate from the same source; when their accord is perceived, that will send in the soul a great tranquility and peace. The principle of 'Let there be no compulsion in religion (The Qur'an: 2, 256)' neutralizes power; God is proclaiming that the material power has no dominance over man's heart. Man's conscience has been protected from coercion; that is so because faith that comes about through coercion is not faith, nor is disbelief that comes about through coercion disbelief. When you defeat someone who is an unbeliever, he has the right to adhere to his disbelief – you accept his disbelief and respect him. What we endeavour to do is not to have a hypocritical proselyte. It is a good thing in modern systems that they admit, at least in theory, that no one has authority over an individual's conscience – hence they admit in their constitutions the freedom of conviction; such an article exists to protect man's conviction; that he may not change his faith by coercion, but through persuasion. Ruling out force as the means to dictate man's conviction has taken root at a time when the material power has reached a point when it can destroy the earth and life. This enlargement of force has brought into play new important and clear responsibilities. It is true that the old habit of resorting to force is still in effect, but it shrinks continually. Since the exploding of the first atomic bomb, sixty years back, something new has taken place, the significance of which the world has not yet realized; people go on talking the old language, the language of threat, which is outdated, and virtually invalid, in practice though not in words. This is the opposite of what happens to many ideas, which are admitted in theory, though not applied in practice. In the case of ruling out the resorting to force, it has been applied in practice before being admitted in words. The society of the big powers can no longer fight among themselves, and they know this clearly enough, and they act on this. Violence and fighting are ruled out in the disputes of the big powers, though they still conduct and control fighting in the other parts of the world, in the parts where force is still accepted as an efficient way of resolving matters. We should be mindful of the fact that when small parties, like ourselves, wage war among themselves, the same old way, it will be to the benefit of the big parties, in such a way that we may say with confidence that anyone who, in the world of the small, tries to solve his problem through force will have played in the hands of the big, whether he be the first to resort to violence or the last. As for the world of the big, they will have their casualties, without an outside enemy – that is what happened to the former Soviet Union: it crumbled from inside "Allah took their structures from their foundations, and the roof fell down on them from above (16, 26); " it wasn't that an external enemy attacked them to cause their fall through aggression. On the other hand, we see that Japan, a country that had surrendered unconditionally, under the effect of the atomic bomb, rose to its feet. It rose without the nuclear bomb, and without a civil war, to stand on a footing with the Big Seven in the world. These events are of significance; they take place by the laws of God. The Japanese are human beings, and they are not Jews, nor Christian, nor Muslim, and there is more reason in that to urge us to think of what happened and how it happened. That is why, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, I say that to acquire power is not to acquire the material weaponry. What the Qur'an urged the Muslims at one time to secure, " make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war (8, 60)," is no longer operative, in the sense that we all know that no one would like now to build more stables for horses to be ridden by fighters; it is the same in the case of spears and swords; it is the same with tanks; and it is the same with nuclear and tetron bombs – they all are no longer needed. What is needed is man, who has control, through thinking: so glorified by God, the best to create (reference to the Qur'an, 23, 14;) He created man to be a creature unlike any other creature, capable of choosing to purify or debase his soul, and capable of having control. It is also after the outmoding of material force that the European Union emerged. The European Union did not come into being through force, but through its abolishment, the realization that force may not be a reason for privileges "lest one people should be more numerous than another (16, 92)." What made it possible for Europe to unite was not a Hitler or a Napoleon, though each had reached Russia in the east, and reached the Arab world; and yet one died through suicide and the other as an exile. When Europe unites now it is not on the principle that Germany is above all or France is above all. Germany or any other nation is equal to any other party, that despite any residue of old bragging which sounds discordant when this or that leader utters it; it sounds like what the Messenger said about racism: "Leave it off; it stinks." Such words when uttered seem to smell foul and obnoxious. I am aware of what will occur at this point, that Israel has come into existence and sustains and enhances its purposes through force; but there is an illusion here, even if it is said so loud that it deafens our ears. Malik bin Nabi likened Israel to a red cloth that is waved by a matador, which he waves to enrage the bull, and the bull would, instead of attacking the matador, attack the red cloth, and, when the time is ripe, the matador would stab the bull fatally in the neck, despite its great fury. So one can learn much by studying history. Those who cling to the force of arms, in fear of Israel, have, by the acquiring of arms, fulfilled the purpose for which Israel came into being. It was created to divert attention from the real problems, to distract our attention with secondary problems. It was a shock to me when Malik bin Nabi did not consider Israel as the prime problem; but I came to understand new things, and my comprehension was increasing more and more. And then the second Gulf War came, and it was the last straw: it exposed the Arabs and Muslims, and all the backward nations; we forgot about Israel when we faced the problems that now emerged. There was exposed the fallacious traditions we had inherited from the Pre-Islamic period, as expressed in a line of poetry: "And we often assail the tribe of Bakr, who are our next of kin, when we find no other enemy to assail." We also awakened to the fact that there is a Western power which backs Israel and poses a greater threat for all Arabs than Israel. It still is true that Israel is not the disease, but a symptom of the disease. There is a proof of this in that Israel's war did not awaken us: in 1948, we accounted for the defeat by lapping it on the backward and traitor rulers who sold Palestine or abandoned it; we admired the coups d'étas, which came with a hue and a cry, one after the other; but they are no less backward than the backward governments they toppled. The Muslim and the secularist are the same in their mental structure, despite the bitter hostility they have for each other: they are governed by the same culture, the same tradition, a tradition that has no foundations, no enlightenment, a fanatic tradition that clings to a past that they have not analyzed, or to a present that they do not discern. Therefore we see that the secularists have played their part, and then are fading out. But are the Islamicists more far-sighted, or more profound of vision and analysis? It may be that the later comers will benefit from the experience accruing through previous events; hence, though the Afghan and Algerian phenomena are unfortunate and painful, the phenomena of Iran and Turkey are indicative of unexpected hopes. We have not given the Iranian phenomenon the attention it deserves. For my part, my reading of the events of the world leads me to have special views of both Iran and Turkey. As for Iran, what happened there has been unprecedented; indeed nothing like it happened in the Muslim World since the days of the Upright Caliphs (the first four caliphs after the Prophet.) Such change of dynasties as took place before in the Muslim World was internal struggles, something like the four generations described by Ibn Khaldoon; coup d'étas that happened changed a dynasty to another dynasty. Nations were absent from those conflicts; it was armies that undertook to bring about the change. But the Iranian Revolution was a popular revolution, a woman's revolution before a man's. It has been a remarkable event, a radical change in perspective and execution, and a marvellous model. The sheer enormity of the achievement might be the cause of our failure to fathom and interpret it; some may be inclined to interpret it in Divine terms: that it has been a Divine concern, a miracle that may not come under the laws of the universe. When the Shah used to impose a curfew, Khomeini used to command: You must defy that edict and go to the streets, women and men, the women to go ahead and offer flowers to the soldiers of the Shah. In such confrontation, woman is more effective than man; no one would need here military drills or to practice the use of arms. All an individual would need is to announce: I am free in choosing my faith. I believe in this and disbelieve in that. You can put me to death for that. Many were actually killed, but when a martyr fell, his or her place was not left vacant, a substitute would take his or her place at once. It was in this way that the Shah was expelled, without any bullet or a missile being shot. The government was handed over, and the authority and dominance now belonged to the new power, a popular power. It has been a novel power, new in the full sense of the word. The success was also different from the success in Algeria, through the ballot-box; it was quite different. It was also different from the Afghani way, where they sought to keep women at home. The local government in Iran was helpless, even with outside support, in resisting the rising power. Popular wakefulness is not likely to be frustrated by external powers. And let me dream here, apologizing to Abdul-Jabbar and to the readers, by saying: The Iranians could have taken Iraq over too, in the same way as they faced the Shah, but they did not. Iran's other challenge, the democracy and democratic elections is an added achievement, though it stems from the first vision. What happened in the last elections in Iran has been a fresh surprise for the whole world. The Iranians have successfully gone beyond the peaceful revolutionary stage, and have marched on, in firm steps towards democracy. This event is replete with significance; the international media were betting against the Iranian democracy – that even if Khatami should succeed, he would not be allowed to rule. But he did succeed and did rule. And now, despite all predictions to the contrary, the Iranian people will not give up democracy – it has tasted the sweetness of success; it now believes that it shapes its own future. They will lead the way to a solid Islamic cooperation, a cooperation that its neighbours can feel secure in its neighbourhood. This is your real capital, a capital which far surpasses the possession of property and riches – to feel that your neighbour feels security in your contiguity, that you will not play treacherously against it, that you will support it, even when it does not show itself to be a good neighbour. Such relationship is a new phenomenon that no hostile parties can corrupt: it is our hope that the sagacity of the wise will prevail. And I am aware of the dissenting voices in that sphere. We can think also of the Turkish people. It is Turkey who rebelled against Islam, leading the way for the rest of the Muslim World to follow in that direction. It is they who abolished the corrupt caliphate. But, in the same way as they led the Muslim World in challenging Islam, after Muslims had lost 'al-rushd: uprightness', Turkey is being a pioneer in challenging secularism and secularist democracy. Such developments prove that God's promise will be fulfilled, that His light will prevail, locally and universally. Those who call to a complete dissociation with the others or to war no longer receive the support they used to receive; supporters to such trend are on the decrease, and opposers are on the increase; opposition to such trend are gaining in firmness and confidence. God's purpose in creating man will come to pass – His decree that man (as declared in the Qur'an, 2, 30) will get over mischief and will stop bloodshed. Problems are now solvable, without the need for human sacrifices. It will come to pass, when we understand such simple facts; some may thing it unlikely, but we believe it is a certainty: I do not say that by just believing in the unseen, but that unseen has now for us some visible evidence. But let's return to the problem of Israel, the state that has done the part assigned to it efficiently: it has distracted Arabs from their prime responsibilities, their deep internal problems, which they have inherited over the centuries. Let me discuss something which seems unthinkable from the Arabs' point. There is much talk about peace with Israel, the state which has no basis for its existence, which has no foundations, but there is still much talk about peace with Israel, and it seems not to enter our heads to have peace among ourselves. Malik bin Nabi used to say: When we grow to talk more about the proneness for being colonized than about colonization, it is then that we would have taken the first step towards a solution. God has said, and so has the Messenger, and Adam, and even Satan, (in reference to various Qur'an verses) that we are accountable for our problems. We read in the Qur'an: "What! When a single disaster smites you, although you smote your enemies with one twice as great, do you say – 'Whence is this?' Say to them: 'It is from yourselves,' (3, 165). " By the way, the Qur'an is the only book that rebukes the victim more than the persecutor. That is so because the oppressor is enabled of oppression only through our compliance and assistance; should we withdraw that assistance he would fall. In the course of a long tradition of the Messenger's, peace be upon him, he says: "Anyone who receives good recompense, let him thank God; but anyone who receives foul recompense, let him blame no one but himself." In contrast, we seem to blame anyone but ourselves. More about that. Adam, peace be on him, after he had eaten with his wife from the forbidden tree, and God admonished him (as recounted in the Qur'an): " Did I not forbid you that tree (7, 22,) Adam and his wife said: "We have wronged our own souls (7, 23.)" Neither of them mentioned the Devil, how he had enticed them; it was God who told us about his seduction. Adam and his wife took all the responsibility; and it was for that that they merited to be given custody of the earth. We may even cite Satan in this context: on the Day of Judgement he will address those who followed him with the words (as the Qur'an reports): " I had no authority over you except to call you, but you listened to me: then reproach not me, but reproach your own souls. I cannot listen to your cries, nor can you listen to mine (14, 22)." We have also the testimony of Toynbee, who learned from history that civilizations do not come to their demise as martyrs, but as suicidors. It is after they are a corpse that eagles and hawks attack them, for they find their nourishment in corpses. So that is the lesson of history. But what is it that prevents us from having peace among ourselves? It is worth our effort to explore that problem. There has been a long history of strife among us, and that strife has barred our way to achieving things in other spheres. I have investigated this issue; those who I have asked would not consider even the possibility of peace among ourselves, I mean a peace in which there is no losing party, in which all are winners: leaders, monarchs, princes, land-owners and the wealthy; nothing will be taken away from them, but it will increase. When I say this to people, they do not imagine it to be possible at first: it is so because they have an a priori rule, that the problem cannot be solved except by annihilating the other, or by confiscating his property. But what I am advocating here is a situation where all parties are winners, what each of the parties possesses thrives. The proof of this can be witnessed not on a remote galaxy but here on this earth, and in our traditional neighbours, since the time of Alexander to our own day (the Europeans). If history can teach us something, it teaches that perdition awaits the wrong-doer, and prosperity is the reward of good doers. We must, every time Israel impedes the progress to peace reinforce peace among ourselves, we must each one of us own our guilt, not hasten to directing accusations against each other. I do not address these words to the political leaders, who are too preoccupied with their immediate problems. I am only addressing the ordinary man and woman, to say to him and to her: There is a solution in which no one loses anything, and every one is a winner. I would like to give every one of them a word that they can utter without feeling that they are being traitors or guilty or agents of foreign parties. We oscillate and swing, not because of Adam's sin, as the Christians put it, but because of the culture we grow in, which we absorbed even before we learned to talk. In this culture, we think that to unite Muslims we need to annihilate those we do not approve of: a culture that validates treachery and applauds the traitors, as if treachery would eliminate treachery. Crookedness in fact cannot be eliminated with crookedness, but with uprightness. We need to talk and reiterate to the Muslim these ideas, to realize that he must confess his sins. I say if the call to peace among Arabs, where each party is a winner and no one loses anything, is not a sin, then I call to that in the open, not in secret, but loud and clear. And if some people consider that call sinful, then I am prepared to commit that sin: I only call to that and make it clear that peace among us is possible, and no one need to be a loser. Indeed no one will oppose that except he who will expose his own guilty conscience, the one who denies the right of the others. Therefore, we need to learn the words and utterances that we need to make. We do not even want to start applying democracy at this stage: we want to start with the possible, so that people are calmed down with the feeling that there is a different view, that there are some who uphold this view, and others who oppose it. These are few simple and glowing words; but we need to say them again and again until they become familiar. Let us get over people's saying: Never did we hear the like of this! (a reference to the Qur'an, 28, 36); let them get familiarized to these ideas, and start to talk about them. At least we will feel in the depth of our heart the possibility of peace and security among Muslims and believers, for, otherwise, how can peace and security have any sense? If we believe in that, it will thrill us to see someone trying to establish peace and security among Arabs and Muslims, and will be repelled when someone tries to unite Arabs and Muslims with the sword. Let us remember, Arabs, that when two Arab countries joined hands for a short while during the October 1973 war with Israel, even those who had no direct involvement cooperated with them, which surprised the rest of the world, while the Arabs were ecstatic, and the price of their oil rose: they had pierced the terror wall. Let us remember, on the other hand, that when two Arab states fell apart in the Second Gulf War, they came to grief, and they lost much money; and they are still driving further and further apart; after ten years they cannot face each other and cannot greet each other. But the Messenger taught us that the better party is that who greets first. Regaining confidence will not happen overnight, of course. Arabs did try to unite, Egypt and Syria united for some years, but it was broken, and more than forty year passed after that. When there is a call to union now, it is received with vexation, for how can a structure be erected without foundations? Let us understand first, and talk after, words that express sound reasoning. We need to discover the way to peace, and to pave such way that people find it passable. The way to peace is not sketched yet, even on maps, so how can we talk about realizing it on earth. There are preconceptions that are not uttered, but work potently among us, more than any signed agreement. There is complicity that Muslims have lost al-rushd (the upright way to politics, more or less the same idea of 'no compulsion in religion' mentioned in the Qur'an, 2, 256, which is true in the sphere of politics, too,) when they substituted it with delusion (opposite of al-rushed, compulsion in religion and politics.) When this took place, Muslims were alarmed, but did not know the way to regaining the upright way in religion and politics; so they unanimously agreed, without words, to substitute delusion for al-rushd, that whoever had the means to regaining al-rushd with treachery and violence can resort to that. Such reasoning was never expressed in words, because that way of thinking cannot be articulated, but they all had it clear and it was publicized to everyone: it was the norm, the accepted way. And down to our own day we have not challenged that implicit complicity with any consciousness, which is the first step to being cured from it; we have not gone one step on the way to upright religion and politics (al-rushd in Qur'anic terms as in the verse " Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects taghoot and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks (2, 256)." In the clause "Let there be no compulsion in religion", God is drawing the line between uprightness and delusion, and the demarking line is stated in the second clause: that compulsion is an error, and non-compulsion is uprightness; in the third clause it is further elucidated that a person who rejects the taghoot – for the taghoot is the prototype of compulsion, whose life and existence are based on compulsion – so he who disbelieves in the taghoot and believes in God (meaning God's system of non-compulsion), that person has held to the firm hand-out, which will not break. Another thing in which Muslims have tacitly and unanimously agreed upon, to a point of taking it to be indisputable, is that should right and wrong, or goodness and evil, be given equal chance, then it is wrong which will triumph over right and defeat it, that people will choose what is wrong. Now for one thing such belief is thinking poorly of God, as expressed in such Qur'anic verses as: " Moved by wrong suspicions of Allah – suspicions due to Ignorance (3, 154)," and " But this thought of yours which you entertained concerning your Lord, has brought you to destruction, and now you have become of those utterly lost! (41, 23)." For another thing, God says that should truth and falsehood be in conflict, it is falsehood that will collapse, because it is in its nature to collapse: " And say: 'Truth has now arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is by its nature bound to perish (17, 81); " He does not say that when falsehood comes truth will collapse, and yet we have it deep in our hearts that wrong will prevail. We have been taught to be scared of falsehood in an exaggerated and unjustified way. We can read further about that God's words: " Say: The Truth has arrived, and Falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything (34, 49), " and " Now We hurl the Truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood perishes! (21, 18).". The attitude described here is thinking ill of God; that is in the first place. It is also thinking ill of Islam and truth. It presupposes that when people are given the choice they will desert truth and Islam, and truth and Islam will have no one to side with them. That is in the second place. In the third place, such attitude is thinking ill of man, that falsehood appeals more to him than truth. But in fact, man finds truth more congenial than evil; that is why God says: " But most of them do not know the Truth, and so turn away (21, 24)." This tells us that it is through the spread of ignorance that men will take their faults to be justified. It is for this reason that there must be articulate and full clarification of things, so that no lack of knowledge should be the reason for delusion; there will be those who are still condemned, but those are a minority, and even they are there because of the large number of deluded people. When truth is revealed and brought to the notice of people, most people will choose the truth: that is God's law. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 40 2009-05-06T08:01:24Z Admin 1 Created page with '==Jawdat Said, What are the main stages in your intellectual progress?== {{Current Islamic Issues}} Thank, you, brother Rifa'ee, for this question. I feel obliged to let you know...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==Jawdat Said, What are the main stages in your intellectual progress?== {{Current Islamic Issues}} Thank, you, brother Rifa'ee, for this question. I feel obliged to let you know that it is not with great readiness that I usually answer questions. However, your questions seemed to me to reflect a sound comprehension of my intellectual endeavor, that you have already fathomed the nooks and crevices of that world. I likewise compliment your journal for your efforts in fostering thought. Now when you inquire about the stages on my intellectual path, I find your question significant and subtle; but can I ever give a satisfactory answer to such question? Can anyone? Indeed, no matter how I try to reconstruct with any exactness the influences on my development, I don't think I can do justice to that. However, the mere attempt is not unuseful; it is our duty to try to recollect such factors. Let me mention for instance that one day, and I was in the second elementary grade, we had taken a class about prayer, and had learned what a worshipper had to say during the last sitting; the textbook listed two versions of 'al-tashahhud, the set supplication in that posture', one reported by Ibn Abbas, and another reported by Ibn Mas'ood (two companions of the Prophet.) Anyway, I did not have at the time the experience of distinguishing one from the other. So, on my arrival home, I asked my mother to tell me about the difference. So she peered long, and at last she said, indicating one version: "It is this version that we adhere to; it is this that the Great Imam, Abu Hanifah, has chosen; this is our way, and the other version belongs to the Shafi'ite school." That was her answer; so can you imagine the impact on my tender mind of that answer! At that time we did not have the boldness to ask; we felt too shy to ask the teacher or the father – but we did ask the mother. That is why it was my mother that I turned to, and she asserted that we adhered to the version chosen by the Great Imam Abu Hanifah. But the question that occurred to my mind after that I did not dare to declare even to my mother. It occurred to me that should a child from the Shafi'ite school of law return home and ask his mother, she would reply that they adhered to the version chosen by the Great Imam, Al-Shafi'ee. So I started to wonder how one could distinguish between what was right and what was wrong; I may add that that early enquiry is still the basic philosophical question that the world is yet to solve. Later, of course, the question was not just how to discriminate between the various sunni or shi'ite schools; it widened to an inquiry about the different religions, to believers and non-believers, to a general inquiry about the way to finding the truth. That childish and at the same time philosophical question has led me to what you ask in your fourth question, about my taking history to be a source of knowledge, besides the Qur'an. But I find it quite hard to bring within the reader's reach how it came by that I traversed all the wildernesses until I came to take history to be the source of knowledge. It took me more than half a century, mauling over the question: How can I come to know, and how can I know that I know? I ranged my vision over the skies seeking the qibla (metaphorically speaking, seeking the north star of truth.) That inquiry is a human one. Every human being must encounter that same question, the mind-boggling question: how to know the truth in all that ocean? How to get beyond empty talk? There have been people who tried to find their outlet in asserting that the truth was unattainable; there were such people in ancient Greek philosophy and in modern philosophy; and they have bumped into the wall of annihilism. And the simple uneducated man grapples with the same question; you hear the ignorant say: had we been born in such and such land, then our religion would have been that other religion – they do not deny it. It is as a hadith (tradition) of the Prophet's puts it: "Each newborn is born receptive to truth (upon the fitrah); it is his parents who make of him a Jew or a Christian [or whatever]." We find here the culture and patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility (Aaba'iyyah in Arabic) as the source of knowledge. We find the Qur'an condemning the forefathers' being the source of knowledge. The ancestors and the environment should not be the source of knowledge. Rather, the situation must be reversed: An individual must possess the criterion of right and wrong, and then determine where the forefathers and environment were right and where they were wrong. Here, inadvertently, we touch on your question 8, about "patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility", and whether that would mean breaking away with the Islamic heritage. Perhaps the last intellectual stage I reached, and I do not claim to have issued from, was the discarding of the ancestors' authority. This issue of the ancestors' authority bears a lot of analysis – I mean the intellectual authority of ancestors, aba'iyyah, (i.e. patriarchal glorification and infallibility.) Indeed, to accept ancestors as a source of knowledge is a problem, but the consequences are equally dire should we ignore them; they are rather human beings, as we read about human beings in the Qur'an: "You are but men, - of the men He has created (5, 18)". You know my habit of choosing clauses of Qur'anic verses to be titles of my books; and I wish I could write a book entitled: " You are but men, - of the men He has created (5, 18)". This dilemma of idolizing ancestors harks backs to the fact that without the ancestors we would be nothing; it is in this context that you asked, very rightly, " Is not any growth without roots an illusion?" You see how ideas are called up through association; your questions link to each other, and on to other topics. You remind me of a revolutionary idea that I came across in a book by Malik bin Nabi (which, it seems to my mind to be The Birth of A Society), when he, in the course of a note introducing history, said: "History is change and development, since the passing time in which no development or growth takes place is a dead time;" and he illustrated with examples from the communities of ants and bees. In millions of years their life has remained unchanged; should we have eliminated a million years from their life, and pasted the earlier to the latter part, we would not have felt anything missing; but this is not so in the case of man. Man is continually in the process of being shaped; we read in the Qur'an, "He adds to Creation as He pleases (35, 1)", " He creates other things of which you have no knowledge (16, 8)". Well, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, how badly we are in need of the truthful word and light! How deep is the darkness and dimness in which we live! How heavy are the shackles that pull us down and impede our progress and mobility! We read that the task of a prophet is " He releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them (7, 157)". Another intellectual juncture in my life took place towards the end of the forties, and I was then a student in Al-Azhar, in Cairo. It occurred to me one day that our instructors seemed to suggest to us that the end of time was drawing near, and that there would be not a day but worse than the previous day; so I reasoned to myself: "How can I devote myself to a system doomed to be worse today than it was yesterday, and worse tomorrow than it is today?" Indeed, had man's need for religion been less compelling, then religions would have been abandoned; as it is, no matter how twisted and warbled religions are represented, they remain grounded in the human intuition that this world is not there for nothing, that it exists in order to establish the truth, although for some the truth is put off until the Hereafter, since they cannot see it as feasible in this world. Such reasoning brought me to wonder whence that idea of "the end of time" stemmed? Was there in the Qur'an such idea? I did read the Qur'an with that question in mind, but could not find it; instead I found " Anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, shall see it (99, 7)", " We will, without doubt, help our Our Messengers and those who believe (40, 51)", " If any think that Allah will not help him in this world and the Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling and cut himself out (22, 15)", and " Allah has promised, to those among you who believe and work righteous deeds, that He will, of surety, grant them, in this land, inheritance of power (24, 55)"; but when societies cease to see the 'process' of forming, when they cease to develop, they are frustrated. It is then that the idea of the end of time prevails; it is true in their case that time has come to an end. Well, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, I am not one of those who can express their thought concisely and precisely; hence my many words which do not bear much sense. I find that I am addressing you and not the reader – it is so because it was you who stirred things and touched some soft spots and unhealed wounds. The Muslim World has lived and is still living in wilderness. It is rising most slowly out of its slumber; that is how it appears to us who long to see the Muslim World shake off its sleep. But it does not appear like that to those who gloat over our sleep – for them we are moving fast towards wakefulness and understanding. Well, brother, it is a difficult problem, that of ancestors. Without the forefathers, we are nothing, since it is the accumulated experiences of past generations that has brought us where we are; without them we must return to the cave and the food-gathering stage, when man lived in the forest, unable to cultivate the land. On the other hand, to be content with what the ancestors have left us, to stay where they have put us, is also a halting of history, and a return to the cave, though it is a different cave and in a different sense – it is bringing time to a standstill. The right relationship with the ancestors is as expressed in the Qur'anic verse, " From whom We shall accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds (46, 16))". But we seem to have put ourselves in a grave predicament – we are unable to go beyond the ancestors. Give us light, O God, give us light! We need to see things not in the way they were seen by our forefathers. It is a fact that over fourteen centuries the ancestors have been declining; it is a fact that with every new defeat the previous defeats appear slight. Please do not take me wrong; I do not have any malice towards the ancestors; they did do their share; they did not have before them for guidance the history the we have before us; we should forgive them, but we should rid ourselves of the shortcomings we have inherited from them. We have to perceive that God's creation is a continuous affair (see the Qur'anic verse: He adds to Creation as He pleases '34, 1'.) As it is, those who forged ahead have been other nations, and the Qur'an teaches us that they must have the fruit of their effort: "Such days of varying fortunes We give to men by turns (3, 140)". We still fail to comprehend the realities of life and history – they seem to mean nothing to us; that is because we think that the Scripture precludes reference to them. The truth is that history and the Scripture work as a pair, like man and wife; life will be barren with either of them in isolation of the other. The technology of writing and transmission of experience is a new phase in the life of man – man is indeed unique among living things in the world; other species have the germ of their behaviour in their genes; but man is not born with all his behaviour and future predetermined as is the case with the rest of living things. A human being is born knowing nothing, and learns his behaviour after that. Logicians used to say that man is a speaking animal, in the sense that he transmits experience through spoken words. We do not know when precisely man started to talk, but we do know with precision when he started to write. We know that exactly because man left his traces on stones, parchments, and paper five thousand years ago; this is what we call a text. There is something sacred about writing because it is this technical innovation that preserved human experience. Before writing, experiences were lost with the death of the person; an individual stored his experience in his brain, and the brain goes with the death of the human being. Eons of time passed in which man lived in the oral stage. God did not reveal a book until people learned reading and writing (incidentally, Muhammad, the last prophet, could not read and write.) What God says about Adam is " And He taught Adam the names of all things (2, 31);" He says He taught him the names, not revealed a book to him. When man discovered speech, he started to give vocal symbols to concepts, he started to name things. Man can name something or a concept after gaining the experience and understanding; that is the way with all new physical and intellectual additions. Therefore when God says: " And He taught Adam the names of all things ", it does not mean He taught him all languages. Later, man acquired that skill of writing. The first word of the first sura of the Qur'an, which is God's final message to mankind is 'Read (sura 96)', an indication that the written symbol has no inherent value; it is we human beings who provide the specific relationship between the symbol and the referent. This puts us face to face with the problem of the text – a text, any text, has no value except in so far as it relates to the actual state of things; at the same time, the actual state of things will soon evaporate unless it is given some permanence in the text. In this way the text has acquired a vital role in man's life; man is unable to live without texts; and the techniques of storing knowledge have not been confined to writing; later the voice and the various sounds were added to it; and, later still, the visual dimension was introduced. It is very, very slowly that we begin to appreciate the relation between the text and the real state of things, or the name and the referent. It is for such consideration that the Qur'an teaches us that if we get to know the world we shall believe in the Scripture's truth. It is so because to know the Book in isolation of the world we shall be misled – we read: " Soon will We show them Our signs (42, 53)", " but they threw it [the Book] behind their backs (3, 187)". For instance, if we continued to argue about cosmology on the basis of the revealed evidence, our argument could have lasted for ever; what cut the argument short is not the text, but explorations of the sky. There are so many facts in the earth and in the whole world that provide abundant evidence; the Qur'an urges us to examine both the evidence in the world around us and the evidence in our own being, in the nervous systems which stores experience, 'evidence of the selves in Qur'an terms'. Unless we realize and acknowledge that relationship between the revealed text (the Scripture) and the world of matter, which is the referent of the Scripture, we shall continue to dwell in the wilderness and to charge each other with blasphemy. Another juncture in my intellectual life has been the reading of one line written by Muhammad Abdoh. He wrote: "Let those who lash out against religion lash out against their love of worldly pleasures." These few words seemed to tear apart another taboo; it dawned in on me that we could understand things in a new light. It was also shedding new light on things when I read a book, Islam at Crossroads, by Muhammad Assad. I realized again that things that seemed intractable really had solutions. I was beginning to realize that all problems could be solved. The crowning evidence of all that was when I read a verse of the Qur'an: " And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth: behold, in that are Signs indeed for those who reflect (45, 13)." The phrase, "subjected to you" signifies offering a service without compensation. It means that we should be able to give the command, and have the universe obey; if the universe does not obey our command, then there is something wrong, not in the world, but in us. The development of ideas, however, was very slow, though there were glowing moments. I was a student at the time, with my eyes and ears quite open, receiving signals that kept bombarding on my senses all the time; at the same time I analyzed those messages. Then in the middle of the fifties of the twentieth century I graduated from Al-Azhar. Around that time, I happened to come across a book by Malik bin Nabi, The Conditions of Revival. That was a really major stage in my growth. I did not at first reading understand what Malik was driving at, but I did realize that here was a new method of seeing and analyzing things. So I kept reading and reading, I read every line with great concentration; I brought points together, peered closely, then from a distance, then reflected and reflected. For instance, I read his book The Afro-Asian Idea more than thirty times. I taught it to others, starting with the chapter, 'The Afro-Asian Idea and the Muslim World'. The idea in Malik bin Nabi that had perhaps the most impact on my mind was 'proneness to being colonized'. This concept is a massive and pivotal one, and must be developed and elaborated beyond where Malik left it; it really is an echo of a Qur'anic concept "Whatever evil happens to you, is from your own soul (4, 79)." Malik was striking a note discordant with what we used to hear from Al-Afghani and Muhammad Abdoh, or even Iqbal. It was really a shaking, a violent shaking when he reversed the direction from blaming things on the enemy, the colonizer, imperialism, the crusaders, Zionism, free-masonry, and all the other enemies – to blaming ourselves. Indeed, all those who stood up to discuss things, religious, agnostic, or atheist, would blame the others for our suffering, some or all of the above enemies. How muffled and murmured was the voice, if at all there was a voice, that spoke of our ills that give the others the chance to exploit us. Malik's was a giant step; it would throw the whole situation in a different cast; the responsibility for our ills was now put in the right place. Malik was similarly galvanizing when he said: "When people in the Muslim World meet in conferences to discuss problems, they deem Palestine to be the prime problem of the Muslim World; this is a mistake, because, proneness to being colonized and the backwardness in which we live are the real disease, while Palestine, Eritrea, Cashmere, etc. are no more than symptoms of the real disease." I did have a jolt when he said: "The 'proneness to being colonized' took root in our world long before it occurred to the colonizer to come and occupy our land." He described a curve which he started with the emergence of the Islamic idea, from the call at the Cave of Hira' to the Battle of Siffin; and then to Ibn Khaldoon, and then it declines to colonization and backwardness. He was unusual and astonishing when he said: "the proneness to being colonized did not take shape in Paris, London, Washington or Moscow. It rose and took shape under the mosques' domes of the Muslim World, in Bukhara, Samarqand, Delhi, Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Al-Qairawan, in sum across the Tanjah-Jakarta axel." He proved himself to be very perceptive of the source of our predicament when he said: A person who is ignorant of what the twentieth century has added to human knowledge will bring disgrace and derision to himself every time he opens his mouth to say something. So you see, my brother Abdul-Jabbar, how slowly we grow, indeed at a snail's speed. It is not merely exceeding sloth with us; it is that we attach a sacred meaning to the sources of our backwardness, and we are even prepared to die in the way of preserving things the way they are. So let me remember other stations in my intellectual growth. One of these has certainly been Muhammad Arkoun. He is a man that can talk in terms other than the sacred or condemned. (Malik used to say that the Muslim World can perceive things to be either pure and sacred or vile and condemned; that one can pass from one state to the other in a moment – a fighter for the truth now can very easily be said to be a traitor the next minute; a believer now can be condemned as a heretic and infidel the next day.) My experience with Iqbal has been quite different from that with Malik. The latter was an electric engineer; the former was a poet, a mystic poet, who communed with human beings and (in his imagination) with the jinn, and soared in the heavens, having communion with angels and Redwan, custodian of the Paradise; he argued with the colonizer and the devil. Iqbal used to say: "My vision can perceive the very pulse of stars, and the blood circulation of the full moon." He fathomed the world, quantitively and qualitatively; to him man is the arm of the Divine Will. It was he who taught us that though the Qur'an and Islam appeared before the age of science they did herald the scientific way. It is he who awakened us to the value of the signs of the world around us and the world inside us when he said: The Qur'an counts the world around us and the world inside as a source to indicate the truth. It was he who illuminated, and still illuminates more, the Qur'anic verse: “Soon will We show them Our Signs in the regions of the world, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses all things (41, 53)?” It was Iqbal who fathomed the significance of the 'seal of prophethood' and its importance. It is history which will reveal the importance of that idea. We do say that Muhammad, peace be upon him, is the last of prophets, but how deeply do we realize the significance of that fact? The whole line of prophets, from Noah until Muhammad, appeared within a period of five thousand years; that is the story of prophethood from beginning to end. But how will people be after a million years? Iqbal says in this connection: It was right that prophethood should come to a halt, because the signs in the world around and the world inside were coming to be the source of revealing the truth. It was Iqbal who helped me discriminate between right and wrong. That was when Iqbal said: the way to discriminate and assess the various systems, religions, philosophies and civilizations, is to study the kind of individual who is the outcome of any particular religion or philosophy. Iqbal's scope was limited from the factual aspect; and yet, his intellectual scope was supreme. His perceptive vision solved for me the problem of shari'ah; he had massive ideas in this respect – he said that God's shari'ah, or law, is justice; whatever is shown to be just is God's shari'ah; it is around the axel of justice that the shari'ah revolves. But as to the details of jurisprudence they vary as the time varies; and people can come close or drive far from justice. He said this in the course of analyzing the history of the Turks and the Turkish thinkers during the Ottoman revolution. There must be other original thinkers, but the few that I had access to all allot to man a vital place and give him a high role. So what must I say next? How much do you discern of all that, and all the darkness surrounding us, and all the internecine killings among us? So where is the lamp? Where, in Heidegger's word, is the light? Let us say that so far I have tried to answer two of your questions, One and Two, that is, (1) the intellectual stations and (2) the intellectual components. At the beginning, my affiliation was with 'salafi' school (doctrine of first two or three generations of Islam;) another stage was with Al-Afghani and Abdoh; next it was Iqbal and Malik bin Nabi. Arkoun opened up the world of modernism. That was a challenging stop, since the West occupies a predominant place in the world; it would not be easy to discover its drawbacks. It was Iqbal again who helped me there; that is when he said, addressing the West: "That civilization of yours will be like the mother bird which will suffocate its little newborn; that is because the nest which is built on a feeble branch will not stay long. Your fire has not scorched me, because I follow Abraham's faith. Your glamour does not dazzle me, for I have lined my eyes with Al-Madinah antimony." How to deal with the West is a problem; what we should do is to accept their best production and to bypass their blunder. What happens is that modernism is being served to us wholesale, with its good and bad aspects, and the problem with many of us is that they would either take it to be no more than delusion and corruption, and others would not and will not turn their attention to the Westerners' innovations and what avenues they have opened for mankind. Indeed, the Westerners have not only invented transportation means to replace the donkey, the mule, the horse and the camel; they have found a way for changing a ruler without bloody struggles. This latter is a more remarkable achievement accomplished in the West than the material things we are so keen to buy, to buy rather than to produce even today. We show no interest in the transferring of government in a civilized way; we are not yet ready for that. Not many among us, secularist or Islamicist, believe in the power of ideas, that it is better to persuade people than to intimidate them. We are still below the level of acquiring the Western democracy, where governments are transferred through persuasion, though there is an amount of fraud, rather than through overpowering with the whip, with iron and fire. This democracy is a really new thing in the world, although it is also old from another angle. Muslims did have the upright way of rule, 'Al-Rushd' in Islamic terms, and when they lost that they somehow felt that something enormous was lost – as one Muslim scholar put it: "Would you like to have the Caesarian way of rule, every time a Caesar is gone another Caesar replaces him?" But then mankind marched on, for it is God's law that He enhances creation with new creations; He creates new things, as new means of transportation were created to replace the donkey, the mule and the horse. The modern innovations have revolutionized people's conception of the universe; people's concept of the sun rotating around the earth, and the earth as the centre of the universe, this geocentrism, has all gone. People received that new concept with great alarm; men were ready to have others put to death, and to sacrifice their own life, rather than to let go of the old concept of things. This cosmological revolution was the beginning of all modernism; a new picture of the world was being drawn. There were then the steam engine, and the combustion engine, there were new means of transportation to replace the horse and the mule; new vehicles were being introduced that never occurred to the ancients, not even to their fancies. Then there was the telescope, and man could see the stars and constellations and galaxies. There was the microscope, and man was able to see the germs and the cause of many diseases and epidemics; man overcame many of those diseases and epidemics, and is still defeating others. But there was another Copernican revolution in sociology, although we have not yet perceived its impact. There has been a politico-socio-human revolution when men, not all but some, realized that the phenomenon of day and night did not come about by the rotation of the sun, but by the rotation of the earth. Before that, the sun appeared small, and so it was conceivable that it should run round us, but the earth appeared huge, and people did not even know its ends, so it was inconceivable that it should move; it had to be immobile. It is through a reflection on history that one gets to understand the social phenomena. We have seen great, very great monarchs, apparently irremovable, and even if assassinated, they were just replaced by similar monarchs. We have seen the nations ignorant, passive masses, without a voice, prostrating themselves before whoever happens to occupy the seat of rule. But then, on the heels of the cosmological revolution, there was a social revolution. Monarchs were dwindling in size; they are no more in the advanced world than relics that are preserved as a curious remnant of the past, some still holding their post, but it is void of any power. Power and rule have been transferred to the hands of nations, though very slowly, and the trend is spreading over the whole world. This is really a remarkable achievement in social life. The ordinary man seems to increase in stature; or, which is saying the same thing, his awareness of history has increased. People used to offer human sacrifices: It was Abraham who put a stop to offering human beings as sacrifices, and replaced that with a sheep. Indeed, I find in the Muslim ritual sacrifice of offering a sheep in devotion during the Greater Eid a symbol of the ovolution, the slow process in mankind’s comprehension. Another giant step forward initiated by Abraham was advanced during his argument with the tyrannical ruler who bragged: I can give life, and can give death. Abraham's reply was: " But it is Allah that causes the sun to rise from the East: do you then cause it to rise from the West, (2, 258)." It was a decisive reference to the laws of nature. If the infidel in Abraham's story is stunned, the whole world was similarly overwhelmed and dazzled by the social revolution announced during the 'Farewell Pilgrimage' by Prophet Muhammad, when he referred to Abraham and the cutting off of the practice of offering human sacrifices. He said: "You all descend from Adam, and Adam was made from clay. No Arab has priority over a non-Arab, or a non-Arab over an Arab, no white over coloured or coloured over white, except through piety." He commanded that believers must not regress to a state of disbelief or aberration, cutting each other's throats. He admonished men to be kind in their dealing with women, who were in their custody, so to speak. Well, things have changed since then, in theory, though in practice the change has been all too slow. Well, I have digressed a lot from your questions. But then, your questions are focused on our Islamic, and human, crisis. It appears to me that we view things from the angle of texts, and those texts have been emptied of their significance, and it is our duty to give back to those texts their significance. The message of all the prophets has been one and the same, no matter how we denigrate Christianity or Judaism as supporting polytheism and racism. The messages themselves are the same in essence: the gist of all prophets' teaching is 'al-tawheed: the Oneness of God.' It is al-tawheed which, if realized, no sin is too serious, and, if violated, no devotion avails. ==fot== [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 24 109 106 2009-08-23T09:56:22Z Admin 1 moved [[Q.3: What are the main features of your project "The laws of changing individuals and societies?" Do you consider that project an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilizations?"]] to [[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''A. 3: It may be as you say, that my project has been an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilization." I am keen, however, on reviving the words of the Qur'an.''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} The word 'sunan, plural of sunnah, i.e. laws,' for instance is a well-established word in the Qur'an. The word 'sunnah' has been defined by an ancient Muslim scholar as, 'doing in a second instance the same as was done in a first instance'. This is an attempt to elucidate the word sunnah or sunnan as it appears in such verses of the Qur'an as: "But no change wilt thou find in God's 'sunnah, way of dealing'; no turning off wilt thou find God's 'sunnah, way of dealing;" (35:43). The point of course is that the 'sunan, or laws' are immutable, anytime their conditions are realized. Fire burns, whenever its conditions are realized; and a society will collapse, whenever the conditions for its collapse are realized. A 'sunnah, or law' is invariably operative, and the Qur'an asserts about a certain 'sunnah' that: "it was due from us to aid those who believed;" (30:47) "God never fails in His promise;" (3:9). This is a topic that needs to be discussed and rediscussed until it comes to the notice of people, in a realistic and operative way; it needs to be seen in the material domain, but also in the psychological, individual, and social domains. At present, things are sometimes confused, but it must be affirmed that there are settled laws and systems in the world that do not fail to be operative. It is no big claim to say that the most profound part of knowledge is the discovery of the 'sunan, laws', for once they are understood, those who know them can use them to control things; and it is for this that man was placed on the earth. I know that I am putting forth a project, a first step. I hope that scholars and the rising generation take it up and bring it to a more elaborate and comprehensive stage. That things will come to maturity is indeed a certainty, for Allah has ordained that His light will come to be perfected, no matter how those opposed to it endeavor to impede its progress. Another word drawn from the Qur'an is 'change', in the sense of bringing change about, and in the sense that change is bound to take place. The full weight of the word must be made clear; it is indeed a very significant word, for it indicates that what has changed to the worse, can again be put right. One aspect of this is that to have something right and good to begin with is easier than changing something bad to good. From the Qur'an, one understands that to change that which is in one's mind is the task of man, and not of God: "Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change that which is in their souls;" (13:11). Two changes are mentioned by Allah, and the change in people's mind or soul is to be realized by them before their condition, their favorable or adverse state, is changed by God: the change from God is here the welfare of people, the visible conditions of people. One needs to come to deal with this in real life to learn how the conditions of a people may be changed following the change they effect in their own souls. One does not change one's mind, but that which is in his mind; the expression 'that which is in their souls' shows the accuracy of the Qur'anic terms: one's soul is a receptacle that can hold good concepts and bad concepts. The word 'nafs, soul' is another pivotal word in the Qur'an: you find, 'the soul prone to evil,' (12:53) 'the self-reproaching soul' (75:2) and 'the soul in complete rest,' (89:27). Psychology is therefore an important science, though Muslims are still much apprehensive about it, as it is associated in their minds with the names of Freud and some other persons who are identified with evil purposes. The truth of course is that it is a science, and a science is not in the possession of the east or the west: We need to know all that there is to know about this science; our knowledge of this science should not make do with some hazy and rudimentary notions. Another word, 'society', does not seem to be as steeped in Qur'anic terminology as the other words: the nearest term in the Qur'an is 'ummah, nation'; another related word is 'jama'ah, group, band'. In Malek Bennabi's project, one comes across a realistic and law-based approach, more fitted to modernity-oriented minds than my approach. I usually avoid using words like 'civilization' and 'culture', and have a bias for words drawn from the Qur'an or the Prophet, peace be upon him, or those used in Islamic heritage. I am quite concerned with discussing the 'sunan, or laws' of Allah, and His signs in the world around us and in the in the world of the human mind. At the same time, I am equally concerned with reactivating the Qur'an's terminology. Indeed, after having studied Malek Bennabi, I had to work real hard to find suitable words from the Qur'an to discuss such things as civilization and culture. We have done some work, and have for a lot of effort accomplished little. But for those who come later, they will with less effort do better work, and will come upon the right terminology and deal with the right concepts. Al-Ghazali says: "A person who seeks the concepts or the sense by working on words will get lost and will reap nothing: he will be like one whose destination is towards the west, but he proceeds towards the east; as for him who first works on concepts and then seeks the right terms for those concepts, this one is right-guided." Therefore, the right approach is to seek to understand things first, and then find Qur'anic terminology that expresses those concepts. That is the principle I work upon. I dedicate my effort to finding ways to changing Muslims and changing what is in their minds; (and in this Malek Bennabi is a great help;) and then I try to address the Muslim consciousness with the words of the Qur'an or words drawn from Islamic heritage. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 106 105 2009-08-23T09:49:54Z Admin 1 moved [[Features of your project]] to [[Q.3: What are the main features of your project "The laws of changing individuals and societies?" Do you consider that project an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilizations?"]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''A. 3: It may be as you say, that my project has been an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilization." I am keen, however, on reviving the words of the Qur'an.''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} The word 'sunan, plural of sunnah, i.e. laws,' for instance is a well-established word in the Qur'an. The word 'sunnah' has been defined by an ancient Muslim scholar as, 'doing in a second instance the same as was done in a first instance'. This is an attempt to elucidate the word sunnah or sunnan as it appears in such verses of the Qur'an as: "But no change wilt thou find in God's 'sunnah, way of dealing'; no turning off wilt thou find God's 'sunnah, way of dealing;" (35:43). The point of course is that the 'sunan, or laws' are immutable, anytime their conditions are realized. Fire burns, whenever its conditions are realized; and a society will collapse, whenever the conditions for its collapse are realized. A 'sunnah, or law' is invariably operative, and the Qur'an asserts about a certain 'sunnah' that: "it was due from us to aid those who believed;" (30:47) "God never fails in His promise;" (3:9). This is a topic that needs to be discussed and rediscussed until it comes to the notice of people, in a realistic and operative way; it needs to be seen in the material domain, but also in the psychological, individual, and social domains. At present, things are sometimes confused, but it must be affirmed that there are settled laws and systems in the world that do not fail to be operative. It is no big claim to say that the most profound part of knowledge is the discovery of the 'sunan, laws', for once they are understood, those who know them can use them to control things; and it is for this that man was placed on the earth. I know that I am putting forth a project, a first step. I hope that scholars and the rising generation take it up and bring it to a more elaborate and comprehensive stage. That things will come to maturity is indeed a certainty, for Allah has ordained that His light will come to be perfected, no matter how those opposed to it endeavor to impede its progress. Another word drawn from the Qur'an is 'change', in the sense of bringing change about, and in the sense that change is bound to take place. The full weight of the word must be made clear; it is indeed a very significant word, for it indicates that what has changed to the worse, can again be put right. One aspect of this is that to have something right and good to begin with is easier than changing something bad to good. From the Qur'an, one understands that to change that which is in one's mind is the task of man, and not of God: "Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change that which is in their souls;" (13:11). Two changes are mentioned by Allah, and the change in people's mind or soul is to be realized by them before their condition, their favorable or adverse state, is changed by God: the change from God is here the welfare of people, the visible conditions of people. One needs to come to deal with this in real life to learn how the conditions of a people may be changed following the change they effect in their own souls. One does not change one's mind, but that which is in his mind; the expression 'that which is in their souls' shows the accuracy of the Qur'anic terms: one's soul is a receptacle that can hold good concepts and bad concepts. The word 'nafs, soul' is another pivotal word in the Qur'an: you find, 'the soul prone to evil,' (12:53) 'the self-reproaching soul' (75:2) and 'the soul in complete rest,' (89:27). Psychology is therefore an important science, though Muslims are still much apprehensive about it, as it is associated in their minds with the names of Freud and some other persons who are identified with evil purposes. The truth of course is that it is a science, and a science is not in the possession of the east or the west: We need to know all that there is to know about this science; our knowledge of this science should not make do with some hazy and rudimentary notions. Another word, 'society', does not seem to be as steeped in Qur'anic terminology as the other words: the nearest term in the Qur'an is 'ummah, nation'; another related word is 'jama'ah, group, band'. In Malek Bennabi's project, one comes across a realistic and law-based approach, more fitted to modernity-oriented minds than my approach. I usually avoid using words like 'civilization' and 'culture', and have a bias for words drawn from the Qur'an or the Prophet, peace be upon him, or those used in Islamic heritage. I am quite concerned with discussing the 'sunan, or laws' of Allah, and His signs in the world around us and in the in the world of the human mind. At the same time, I am equally concerned with reactivating the Qur'an's terminology. Indeed, after having studied Malek Bennabi, I had to work real hard to find suitable words from the Qur'an to discuss such things as civilization and culture. We have done some work, and have for a lot of effort accomplished little. But for those who come later, they will with less effort do better work, and will come upon the right terminology and deal with the right concepts. Al-Ghazali says: "A person who seeks the concepts or the sense by working on words will get lost and will reap nothing: he will be like one whose destination is towards the west, but he proceeds towards the east; as for him who first works on concepts and then seeks the right terms for those concepts, this one is right-guided." Therefore, the right approach is to seek to understand things first, and then find Qur'anic terminology that expresses those concepts. That is the principle I work upon. I dedicate my effort to finding ways to changing Muslims and changing what is in their minds; (and in this Malek Bennabi is a great help;) and then I try to address the Muslim consciousness with the words of the Qur'an or words drawn from Islamic heritage. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 105 48 2009-08-23T09:49:34Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''A. 3: It may be as you say, that my project has been an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilization." I am keen, however, on reviving the words of the Qur'an.''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} The word 'sunan, plural of sunnah, i.e. laws,' for instance is a well-established word in the Qur'an. The word 'sunnah' has been defined by an ancient Muslim scholar as, 'doing in a second instance the same as was done in a first instance'. This is an attempt to elucidate the word sunnah or sunnan as it appears in such verses of the Qur'an as: "But no change wilt thou find in God's 'sunnah, way of dealing'; no turning off wilt thou find God's 'sunnah, way of dealing;" (35:43). The point of course is that the 'sunan, or laws' are immutable, anytime their conditions are realized. Fire burns, whenever its conditions are realized; and a society will collapse, whenever the conditions for its collapse are realized. A 'sunnah, or law' is invariably operative, and the Qur'an asserts about a certain 'sunnah' that: "it was due from us to aid those who believed;" (30:47) "God never fails in His promise;" (3:9). This is a topic that needs to be discussed and rediscussed until it comes to the notice of people, in a realistic and operative way; it needs to be seen in the material domain, but also in the psychological, individual, and social domains. At present, things are sometimes confused, but it must be affirmed that there are settled laws and systems in the world that do not fail to be operative. It is no big claim to say that the most profound part of knowledge is the discovery of the 'sunan, laws', for once they are understood, those who know them can use them to control things; and it is for this that man was placed on the earth. I know that I am putting forth a project, a first step. I hope that scholars and the rising generation take it up and bring it to a more elaborate and comprehensive stage. That things will come to maturity is indeed a certainty, for Allah has ordained that His light will come to be perfected, no matter how those opposed to it endeavor to impede its progress. Another word drawn from the Qur'an is 'change', in the sense of bringing change about, and in the sense that change is bound to take place. The full weight of the word must be made clear; it is indeed a very significant word, for it indicates that what has changed to the worse, can again be put right. One aspect of this is that to have something right and good to begin with is easier than changing something bad to good. From the Qur'an, one understands that to change that which is in one's mind is the task of man, and not of God: "Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change that which is in their souls;" (13:11). Two changes are mentioned by Allah, and the change in people's mind or soul is to be realized by them before their condition, their favorable or adverse state, is changed by God: the change from God is here the welfare of people, the visible conditions of people. One needs to come to deal with this in real life to learn how the conditions of a people may be changed following the change they effect in their own souls. One does not change one's mind, but that which is in his mind; the expression 'that which is in their souls' shows the accuracy of the Qur'anic terms: one's soul is a receptacle that can hold good concepts and bad concepts. The word 'nafs, soul' is another pivotal word in the Qur'an: you find, 'the soul prone to evil,' (12:53) 'the self-reproaching soul' (75:2) and 'the soul in complete rest,' (89:27). Psychology is therefore an important science, though Muslims are still much apprehensive about it, as it is associated in their minds with the names of Freud and some other persons who are identified with evil purposes. The truth of course is that it is a science, and a science is not in the possession of the east or the west: We need to know all that there is to know about this science; our knowledge of this science should not make do with some hazy and rudimentary notions. Another word, 'society', does not seem to be as steeped in Qur'anic terminology as the other words: the nearest term in the Qur'an is 'ummah, nation'; another related word is 'jama'ah, group, band'. In Malek Bennabi's project, one comes across a realistic and law-based approach, more fitted to modernity-oriented minds than my approach. I usually avoid using words like 'civilization' and 'culture', and have a bias for words drawn from the Qur'an or the Prophet, peace be upon him, or those used in Islamic heritage. I am quite concerned with discussing the 'sunan, or laws' of Allah, and His signs in the world around us and in the in the world of the human mind. At the same time, I am equally concerned with reactivating the Qur'an's terminology. Indeed, after having studied Malek Bennabi, I had to work real hard to find suitable words from the Qur'an to discuss such things as civilization and culture. We have done some work, and have for a lot of effort accomplished little. But for those who come later, they will with less effort do better work, and will come upon the right terminology and deal with the right concepts. Al-Ghazali says: "A person who seeks the concepts or the sense by working on words will get lost and will reap nothing: he will be like one whose destination is towards the west, but he proceeds towards the east; as for him who first works on concepts and then seeks the right terms for those concepts, this one is right-guided." Therefore, the right approach is to seek to understand things first, and then find Qur'anic terminology that expresses those concepts. That is the principle I work upon. I dedicate my effort to finding ways to changing Muslims and changing what is in their minds; (and in this Malek Bennabi is a great help;) and then I try to address the Muslim consciousness with the words of the Qur'an or words drawn from Islamic heritage. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 48 42 2009-05-06T08:47:31Z Admin 1 /* What are the salient features of your project "The laws of changing the individual and society?". Can it be said that this project of yours is based on the project "The crises of civilization" whic wikitext text/x-wiki ==What are the salient features of your project "The laws of changing the individual and society?"...== '''Can it be said that this project of yours is based on the project "The crises of civilization" which had been launched by the Muslim thinker Malik bin Nabi?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} It might be so. However, I am most concerned to revive the words of the Qur'an, and to revive the Islamic words used by the Qur'an. The word sunnah (law), for instance is a quite established word, in both the Qur'an and in relation to the Prophet's traditions. One good definition of the word 'sunnah', propounded by Muslim scholars, is "to do in a latter situation the same as in a former situation." There is here ingenious comprehension of the word 'suunah'. The Qur'an says of the 'sunnah': " No change will you find in Allah's 'sunnah: way of dealing': no turning off will you find in Allah's 'sunnah: way of dealing', which asserts that 'sunnahs, or laws' are constant: fire burns by its laws, and a society disintegrates by its laws. The effect of a law is certain; and the Qur'an declares that, too: " It was due from Us to aid those who believed (30, 47), " and " Allah never fails in His promise (3, 9)." It is worth our effort to discuss this topic, which will regain for this term 'sunnah' its freshness and concreteness. We should investigate the material, intellectual, personal and social laws. One cause for the confusion about the word 'sunnah' is that some take this word to refer to the Prophet's traditions and behaviours, some take it to be the Sunnite Islam; but few are aware of the sense we are interested in here, God's laws and rules that are characterized by constancy. It can be said that the essence of science is the unveiling of 'sunnah: laws'; it is by this that it gives man control over things, and it is for this purpose that man was made viceroy of the earth. This is just a beginning, a project; I look forward to its development and elaboration and continuation. This will be the task for youthful scholars after us. That it will take place is a certainty: no matter how hard the adversaries try to weaken or extinguish God's light, God's light will spread and prevail. God's law is that His light will spread and shine more despite the rancour of unbelievers and idolaters (reference to the Qur'an, 61, 8, among other locations;) God suffices for Sustainer. Another word from the Qur'an which is well established as a Qur'anic term is: 'change', in both senses of changing and being changed. Change is a crucial phenomenon, and one can understand that what goes wrong can be put right: that is change. It is true, though, that to have the capacity for choosing right and wrong from the beginning is much less arduous than to employ change in changing wrong to right. To change that which is in the minds is the task of human beings, not God. On the other hand, to change people's fortunes is for God to bring about. The former change is the cause of the latter: when a people change that which is in their minds, God will change their fortunes, from prosperity to misery or vice versa (this is in reference to the Qur'an, 13, 11, and other locations.) When we learn to deal with situations realistically, we can determine how to change that which is in our minds and in our life. The phrase chosen by the Qur'an ' what is in their souls' in the verse ' Verily never will Allah change the conditions of a people until they change what is in their souls (13, 11) ' includes the preposition ' in : what is in', and that is significant, because we do not change the selves, the souls, the minds – the selves are a kind of vessel; we rather change the contents of the selves (or souls or minds); we change the values and concepts, good and bad, right and wrong. The word 'nafs: self', and changing that which is in the self, which is the responsibility of people – this is a well-established word. It occupies a vital place in the Qur'an: The self as a seducer, the self as a censurer, the contented self. There is now an established science of controlling that which is in the minds or selves: psychology. Muslims are repelled when this science is mentioned because it is associated with Freud and others who in the minds of Muslims are agents of evil. This science, however, endeavours to change that which is in the minds (nafs), and so it deals with human laws, which are neither eastern nor western, not Arab nor non-Arab. And we must try to make of change a science, a solid science, to be consulted without skepticism or hesitation. Other words like 'society' or 'civilization' as used by Malik bin Nabi are not so well-established as the words we have mentioned above. What such words refer to may be the equivalent to the Qur'anic term 'ummah', although we have other words that have affinity with it, like 'group', as used in the tradition of the Prophet: "God's hand is with the group." Malik bin Nabi's project is more realistic and law-bound than mine, and it is mainly addressed to modern-type minds. But I find that words like 'civilization' and 'culture' are not Qur'anic, nor were they used by the Messenger or Muslim scholars. Hence, though they have Arabic equivalents, I find words that like 'civilization' and 'culture' have no Islamic uniqueness. Although I am keen on God's 'sunan=laws' and His signs in the world around and in ourselves, I am equally keen to have all that connected with the Qur'an and Qur'anic terms. That trend in me is quite cogent; I had to put in much effort, after having studied Malik bin Nabi, in choosing words from the Qur'an which are suitable to revive and to replace words like 'civilization' and 'culture'. Well, we have had to labour along those roads for many years, and my hope is that those who follow will be able to elaborate these concepts and words. Al-Ghazali said something relevant here: "He who seeks concepts through words will be misled and will come to grief; he is like a person who wants to go to the west but turns his back to the west. But he who first examines concepts and then finds words to describe them will be well-guided." This is relevant here in the sense that we have first to examine the concepts and then relate them to the Qur'an. That has been my continual quest, as my means to changing the conditions of Muslims through changing their way of thinking. Having taken in Malik bin Nabi's intellectual contribution, I took upon myself to try to come close to the Muslim's conscience, through the Islamic terms and concepts. I have done my best to put right the relation between reality and words, and that leads me to you Question Four. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 42 2009-05-06T08:05:29Z Admin 1 Created page with '==What are the salient features of your project "The laws of changing the individual and society?". Can it be said that this project of yours is based on the project "The crises ...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==What are the salient features of your project "The laws of changing the individual and society?". Can it be said that this project of yours is based on the project "The crises of civilization" which had been launched by the Muslim thinker Malik bin Nabi?== {{ Current Islamic Issues }} It might be so. However, I am most concerned to revive the words of the Qur'an, and to revive the Islamic words used by the Qur'an. The word sunnah (law), for instance is a quite established word, in both the Qur'an and in relation to the Prophet's traditions. One good definition of the word 'sunnah', propounded by Muslim scholars, is "to do in a latter situation the same as in a former situation." There is here ingenious comprehension of the word 'suunah'. The Qur'an says of the 'sunnah': " No change will you find in Allah's 'sunnah: way of dealing': no turning off will you find in Allah's 'sunnah: way of dealing', which asserts that 'sunnahs, or laws' are constant: fire burns by its laws, and a society disintegrates by its laws. The effect of a law is certain; and the Qur'an declares that, too: " It was due from Us to aid those who believed (30, 47), " and " Allah never fails in His promise (3, 9)." It is worth our effort to discuss this topic, which will regain for this term 'sunnah' its freshness and concreteness. We should investigate the material, intellectual, personal and social laws. One cause for the confusion about the word 'sunnah' is that some take this word to refer to the Prophet's traditions and behaviours, some take it to be the Sunnite Islam; but few are aware of the sense we are interested in here, God's laws and rules that are characterized by constancy. It can be said that the essence of science is the unveiling of 'sunnah: laws'; it is by this that it gives man control over things, and it is for this purpose that man was made viceroy of the earth. This is just a beginning, a project; I look forward to its development and elaboration and continuation. This will be the task for youthful scholars after us. That it will take place is a certainty: no matter how hard the adversaries try to weaken or extinguish God's light, God's light will spread and prevail. God's law is that His light will spread and shine more despite the rancour of unbelievers and idolaters (reference to the Qur'an, 61, 8, among other locations;) God suffices for Sustainer. Another word from the Qur'an which is well established as a Qur'anic term is: 'change', in both senses of changing and being changed. Change is a crucial phenomenon, and one can understand that what goes wrong can be put right: that is change. It is true, though, that to have the capacity for choosing right and wrong from the beginning is much less arduous than to employ change in changing wrong to right. To change that which is in the minds is the task of human beings, not God. On the other hand, to change people's fortunes is for God to bring about. The former change is the cause of the latter: when a people change that which is in their minds, God will change their fortunes, from prosperity to misery or vice versa (this is in reference to the Qur'an, 13, 11, and other locations.) When we learn to deal with situations realistically, we can determine how to change that which is in our minds and in our life. The phrase chosen by the Qur'an ' what is in their souls' in the verse ' Verily never will Allah change the conditions of a people until they change what is in their souls (13, 11) ' includes the preposition ' in : what is in', and that is significant, because we do not change the selves, the souls, the minds – the selves are a kind of vessel; we rather change the contents of the selves (or souls or minds); we change the values and concepts, good and bad, right and wrong. The word 'nafs: self', and changing that which is in the self, which is the responsibility of people – this is a well-established word. It occupies a vital place in the Qur'an: The self as a seducer, the self as a censurer, the contented self. There is now an established science of controlling that which is in the minds or selves: psychology. Muslims are repelled when this science is mentioned because it is associated with Freud and others who in the minds of Muslims are agents of evil. This science, however, endeavours to change that which is in the minds (nafs), and so it deals with human laws, which are neither eastern nor western, not Arab nor non-Arab. And we must try to make of change a science, a solid science, to be consulted without skepticism or hesitation. Other words like 'society' or 'civilization' as used by Malik bin Nabi are not so well-established as the words we have mentioned above. What such words refer to may be the equivalent to the Qur'anic term 'ummah', although we have other words that have affinity with it, like 'group', as used in the tradition of the Prophet: "God's hand is with the group." Malik bin Nabi's project is more realistic and law-bound than mine, and it is mainly addressed to modern-type minds. But I find that words like 'civilization' and 'culture' are not Qur'anic, nor were they used by the Messenger or Muslim scholars. Hence, though they have Arabic equivalents, I find words that like 'civilization' and 'culture' have no Islamic uniqueness. Although I am keen on God's 'sunan=laws' and His signs in the world around and in ourselves, I am equally keen to have all that connected with the Qur'an and Qur'anic terms. That trend in me is quite cogent; I had to put in much effort, after having studied Malik bin Nabi, in choosing words from the Qur'an which are suitable to revive and to replace words like 'civilization' and 'culture'. Well, we have had to labour along those roads for many years, and my hope is that those who follow will be able to elaborate these concepts and words. Al-Ghazali said something relevant here: "He who seeks concepts through words will be misled and will come to grief; he is like a person who wants to go to the west but turns his back to the west. But he who first examines concepts and then finds words to describe them will be well-guided." This is relevant here in the sense that we have first to examine the concepts and then relate them to the Qur'an. That has been my continual quest, as my means to changing the conditions of Muslims through changing their way of thinking. Having taken in Malik bin Nabi's intellectual contribution, I took upon myself to try to come close to the Muslim's conscience, through the Islamic terms and concepts. I have done my best to put right the relation between reality and words, and that leads me to you Question Four. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 25 120 114 2009-08-23T10:22:26Z Admin 1 /* Q. 4: In your writings, you stress that there are two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an, and human history – that a man who ignores human history cannot think properly. So how would you place human wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 4: In your writings, you stress that there are two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an, and human history – that a man who ignores human history cannot think properly. So how would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 4: Well, I may say again, Abdul-Jabbar, you have quite succeeded in touching on those ideas which are most intimate to me. Yes, it is fair what you require. I need to be quite clear and open. I need to provide abundant examples and illustrations. We read in the Bible how Jesus Christ used to speak in parables, and never to speak but with parables. We also read in the Qur'an: "And such are the parables We set forth for mankind, but only those understand them who have knowledge;" (29:43) It is true that a person who does not know history does not only lack knowledge – he also is not reliable as a thinker. Knowledge and the intellect are history; they are experience. Without history, there will be no knowledge and no intellect. To have sound thinking is to relate causes and effects; the mind is not a system of thinking, but a system of relating causes with effects, and how that may be translated into a reality. When a human being is born, he is endowed with the potential capacity to read; however, he may live all his life illiterate; therefore that potential he had for learning how to read and write remains idle, and the ability is not transformed into a reality. Likewise, the word ' 'akl, mind' is not used in the Qur'an as a noun, but as a verb. The Qur'an does not say that people 'do not have a mind,' (because they were endowed with the ability), bur rather that they 'do not understand,' that is they do not relate causes to effects. It is history that testifies to the truthfulness of the Qur'an. Allah himself, as we find in His Scripture, directs us to go to history to make sure that the Qur'an is authentic: "Soon will We show them Our signs in the furthest regions of the earth, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?" (41:54) It is so because no one can meddle with the outcomes of history. Many make a mistake here when they confound what people state, what they think about events, with the outcomes of people's thoughts. The history of communism is not what people, those supporting communism or those opposing it, have written about it: The history os communism is its outcome. This is not a condemning the objective of fair distribution of resources, but a condemnation of a particular way adopted for fulfilling that objective. The objective itself was not wrong, but the way adopted for fulfilling that objective was. For if we were to condemn the objective, we would have to concede that Islam also failed. But things are not like this. Let me deviate a little to put in something that will be seen to be relevant by and by. It is fruitful to compare physical health and mental health. There was a time when people knew almost nothing about the causes of diseases; epidemics invaded large areas and reaped many thousands or even millions. But there are really other diseases, diseases of wrong thinking, regional or universal, that also kill abundant numbers. Like the epidemics, wars are the result of diseases, though they are intellectual, conceptual diseases. Before the germs that killed human beings were discovered, people used to kiss somebody that they loved, killing the beloved one unintentionally – and they cried over the dear victim of their own ignorance. That is something that we understand, but do not we transmit fatal ideas to people, being quite careful in conveying those ideas most honestly? And then, when those ideas result in fighting and hostility, and when people are the victims of the hostility among them, we fail to see how this stems from our poor understanding of human problems. The Qur'an asserts that it is left to us to purify our souls or corrupt them (91:9-10). And so we need to work hard on these topics, to get over our illusions and fancies. One way to do so is to think about the relation between a text and the real things in the world, like trees, or living things, which are handled by the text. I once wrote about that relation. between the text and a concrete object, like the tree, or a living thing, or even an inanimate thing. Now, no matter how well and how extensively scientists or others write about a living or an inanimate object, their writings will not do justice to that thing, until we go to the thing itself and examine it directly. That is the actual reference when any disagreement rises. Even if God describes something in words, that created thing, the concrete thing itself, shows its reality more evidently than any words. Let it be noted that when God reveals a Book, He uses human words (this is indicated in the Qur'an in the following verse: "We sent not an apostle except to teach in the language of his own people;" 14:4,) but when He creates something, He does not use human elements. Let it be remembered, too, that God did not send down a Book until men had learned to read and write; and reading and writing are human things, with all human shortcomings. The Divine creation, on the other hand, has all the absoluteness of God, although creation goes on developing and progressing. We can now connect the last two paragraphs to history and say that Allah directs us to refer to His creation itself to learn the wisdom of the creation. We find the following in the Qur'an: - 'Travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected truth,' (3:137) - 'Then see what was the end of those who were admonished, but heeded not,' (37:73) - 'So see what was the end of those who made mischief,' (7:103) - 'Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime' (7:84) - 'But see what was the end of those who did wrong,' (10:39). That about the wrong-doers; about the upright, we also have another set of verses: - 'The end is best for the righteous,' (7:128) - ' .. who gets home in the end,' (13:42) - '.. Soon will ye know who it is whose end will be best,' (6:135). It is also relevant to recall how Iqbal finds the best criterion of the quality of a civilization or culture, to observe the type of man it has produced. These points are not difficult; people often notice similar facts spontaneously; so we need to ponder over them. Have you not noticed how people spontaneously find the surest proof of a certain event to be the outcome that it gives rise to? The Qur'an supports this, when in so many locations it directs us to observe the ends and outcomes, both in favorable and adverse situations. Likewise, the Messenger, peace be upon him, says: "Many peoples that preceded you brought about their perdition when they forgave a thief if he happened to be a person of high status; but punished a thief if he had no status." We have to think of the above tradition not as a sacred text, but as a historical law: It empirically directs us to observe how a certain line of behavior led to a certain outcome; we do not expect a more rigorous rule than to measure the correctness of a certain behavior against the outcome that it leads to. That is the gist of historical laws, and in this way history would be our lab for examining human behavior. Is not this the way people conduct their experiments and do their observations in the labs of scientific investigation? Our observation of human behavior must always be given priority in our scientific investigation. Take now the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion;" (2:256). Here we have the words of God, but still we may make wrong deductions in analyzing the verse. Muslims have indeed blundered a lot when they failed to let people choose their beliefs without compulsion. They assumed that should we act on the above verse, allowing people to choose to be believers or unbelievers, great numbers of Muslims would abandon the faith. This delusion has led to tragic situations. Why do not those who doubt the truth of this verse notice how the former Soviet Union collapsed under our very noses, when it was the state that practiced compulsion in beliefs. It collapsed, and it was such a resounding collapse! And it will be followed by all those who try to coerce people to accept doctrines that they do not want to accept. It is the law that those who use compulsion will perish, and God says that in another location of the Qur'an: "Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with 'Ad people, of the city of Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all the land? And with the Thamud people, who cut out huge rocks in the valley? And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these transgressed beyond bounds in the lands, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties. For thy Lord is as a Guardian on a watch-tower." (89:6-14) The Qur'an mentions both the conduct of people, and their ends or outcomes; it also affirms that the law will be applied again every time similar conduct is done: "If ye revert, We shall revert to Our punishments;" (17:8) "Never do We give such requital except to such as are ungrateful rejecters." (34:17) Is it not right that, in the light of the above verses and rules, we say: Have you not seen what your Lord has done to the Soviet Union? And to the Shah of Iran? Let it be noticed that the events which took place after the revelation of the Qur'an were more momentous and numerous than the events which took place before it. Therefore we say: Where is the Soviet Union, with all its war heads and missiles? It was definitely greater than Pharaoh and Thamud. We may also, with reference to history, predict that the United States will not be what it is now. It may stay as a great power, but its present arrogance and high-handed ways will definitely vanish. At present, it does not deal with people even-handedly: It rates some as above the law, and rates others as helpless and so it assaults them. When God condemns those who deal with people with double measures (83:1), what about a great power that has no measure at all? Pharaoh was destroyed for he, 'elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them;" (28:4) Another thing about inequality and arrogance is the Veto Right; it is the worst form of polytheism in the world; and the worst thing about it is that no one is pressing for its elimination. On the contrary, those who do not have this right crave it and cry out that they should be granted this right. One is reminded of Qarun, the extremely wealthy man of Moses's people, who, when he went forth among his people in the full pride of his worldly glitter, those whose aim was the life of this world said: 'Oh! That we had the like of what Qarun has got!' (the Qur'an, 28:79) Exactly as many now envy those who have the Veto Right! It is true that anyone who recites the Qur'an is familiar with Qarun's story, but we still have events in the real world to be observed and analyzed. One people, the people of Jonah, are singled out in the Qur'an, as having succeeded in learning the lesson, and making the right change: "Why was there not a single township among those We warned, which believed, so its faith should have profited it – except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the penalty of ignominy, in the life of the present, and permitted them to enjoy their life for a while;" (10:98). People do have some sense of the benefits of observing the signs of history. Iqbal had this in mind when he suggested in the fifth chapter of his book, Reconstruction of the Religious Thought in Islam, that one criterion for judging the mission and message of a prophet is to observe the kind of human being he produced, the kind of culture that emerged as a result of his message. He particularly stresses one great idea of Islam, which is putting an end to prophethood. He also says: "Man is naturally controlled by his emotion and instinct; it is only the conductive mind which enables man to have control over his environment. When we succeed in rising to having this faculty, we have to lay it more firmly and solidly, by suppressing any ways of knowledge that do not employ this method. "Now having the above in mind," adds Iqbal, "we find that the Prophet of Islam, appeared at the juncture between the ancient world and the modern world. As far as chronology is concerned, his message belonged to the ancient world, but as far as the spirit of that message is concerned, he belongs to the modern world. In his message, new sources of knowledge are introduced, that more fit the modern life with the advent of Islam, and in this way Islam announces the birth of the conductive mind. "Now prophethood, as it is perceived in Islam, reaches it perfection, by realizing the need for its termination. And that perception indicates the deep realization of the impossibility of having man led for ever with a harness. By abolishing monasticism and hereditary monarchy, by the Qur'an's exhortation everywhere to resort to the intellect and experimentation, by its insistence on exploring the universe, and getting acquainted with the lives of the preceding peoples, by pointing out all the above as sources of human knowledge, the Qur'an is stressing the idea of putting an end to prophethood… The Qur'an announces the existence of two more sources of knowledge in existence: nature and history. The spirit of Islam is demonstrated more manifestly in opening up a way to research through these two sources. In the signs of the sun and the moon, in observing the extension of the shade, and the succession of the day and the light, and the diversity of colors and tongues, and the moving around of fortunes among peoples, we may not pass by all that without taking note of them." To get at things like the above needs a great effort. Even a man as great as al-Ghazali said that the mind's function was to lead you to Allah and his Prophet, and then you do not need it any more. That was the way they saw things. One wonders now how things seemed like this to them when the Qur'an warns us not to be of "those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works;" (18:104) or the other verse: "Is he, then, to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring, so that he looks upon it as good, equal to one who is rightly guided?" (35:8) But history is always there, no matter how people ignore its lessons: it is there to teach us its lessons. It is indeed a patient instructor; its laws and ways are firm and solid; it will never desist, it is always waiting for us to change our ability to comprehend. I am quite contented that God will enable those who come after us to appreciate the importance of these issues, and understand them in ways that we are quite unable to imagine. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 114 113 2009-08-23T10:02:16Z Admin 1 moved [[Two sources of knowledge]] to [[4: Two sources of knowledge]] wikitext text/x-wiki ==Q. 4: In your writings, you stress that there are two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an, and human history – that a man who ignores human history cannot think properly. So how would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an?== {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 4: Well, I may say again, Abdul-Jabbar, you have quite succeeded in touching on those ideas which are most intimate to me. Yes, it is fair what you require. I need to be quite clear and open. I need to provide abundant examples and illustrations. We read in the Bible how Jesus Christ used to speak in parables, and never to speak but with parables. We also read in the Qur'an: "And such are the parables We set forth for mankind, but only those understand them who have knowledge;" (29:43) It is true that a person who does not know history does not only lack knowledge – he also is not reliable as a thinker. Knowledge and the intellect are history; they are experience. Without history, there will be no knowledge and no intellect. To have sound thinking is to relate causes and effects; the mind is not a system of thinking, but a system of relating causes with effects, and how that may be translated into a reality. When a human being is born, he is endowed with the potential capacity to read; however, he may live all his life illiterate; therefore that potential he had for learning how to read and write remains idle, and the ability is not transformed into a reality. Likewise, the word ' 'akl, mind' is not used in the Qur'an as a noun, but as a verb. The Qur'an does not say that people 'do not have a mind,' (because they were endowed with the ability), bur rather that they 'do not understand,' that is they do not relate causes to effects. It is history that testifies to the truthfulness of the Qur'an. Allah himself, as we find in His Scripture, directs us to go to history to make sure that the Qur'an is authentic: "Soon will We show them Our signs in the furthest regions of the earth, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?" (41:54) It is so because no one can meddle with the outcomes of history. Many make a mistake here when they confound what people state, what they think about events, with the outcomes of people's thoughts. The history of communism is not what people, those supporting communism or those opposing it, have written about it: The history os communism is its outcome. This is not a condemning the objective of fair distribution of resources, but a condemnation of a particular way adopted for fulfilling that objective. The objective itself was not wrong, but the way adopted for fulfilling that objective was. For if we were to condemn the objective, we would have to concede that Islam also failed. But things are not like this. Let me deviate a little to put in something that will be seen to be relevant by and by. It is fruitful to compare physical health and mental health. There was a time when people knew almost nothing about the causes of diseases; epidemics invaded large areas and reaped many thousands or even millions. But there are really other diseases, diseases of wrong thinking, regional or universal, that also kill abundant numbers. Like the epidemics, wars are the result of diseases, though they are intellectual, conceptual diseases. Before the germs that killed human beings were discovered, people used to kiss somebody that they loved, killing the beloved one unintentionally – and they cried over the dear victim of their own ignorance. That is something that we understand, but do not we transmit fatal ideas to people, being quite careful in conveying those ideas most honestly? And then, when those ideas result in fighting and hostility, and when people are the victims of the hostility among them, we fail to see how this stems from our poor understanding of human problems. The Qur'an asserts that it is left to us to purify our souls or corrupt them (91:9-10). And so we need to work hard on these topics, to get over our illusions and fancies. One way to do so is to think about the relation between a text and the real things in the world, like trees, or living things, which are handled by the text. I once wrote about that relation. between the text and a concrete object, like the tree, or a living thing, or even an inanimate thing. Now, no matter how well and how extensively scientists or others write about a living or an inanimate object, their writings will not do justice to that thing, until we go to the thing itself and examine it directly. That is the actual reference when any disagreement rises. Even if God describes something in words, that created thing, the concrete thing itself, shows its reality more evidently than any words. Let it be noted that when God reveals a Book, He uses human words (this is indicated in the Qur'an in the following verse: "We sent not an apostle except to teach in the language of his own people;" 14:4,) but when He creates something, He does not use human elements. Let it be remembered, too, that God did not send down a Book until men had learned to read and write; and reading and writing are human things, with all human shortcomings. The Divine creation, on the other hand, has all the absoluteness of God, although creation goes on developing and progressing. We can now connect the last two paragraphs to history and say that Allah directs us to refer to His creation itself to learn the wisdom of the creation. We find the following in the Qur'an: - 'Travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected truth,' (3:137) - 'Then see what was the end of those who were admonished, but heeded not,' (37:73) - 'So see what was the end of those who made mischief,' (7:103) - 'Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime' (7:84) - 'But see what was the end of those who did wrong,' (10:39). That about the wrong-doers; about the upright, we also have another set of verses: - 'The end is best for the righteous,' (7:128) - ' .. who gets home in the end,' (13:42) - '.. Soon will ye know who it is whose end will be best,' (6:135). It is also relevant to recall how Iqbal finds the best criterion of the quality of a civilization or culture, to observe the type of man it has produced. These points are not difficult; people often notice similar facts spontaneously; so we need to ponder over them. Have you not noticed how people spontaneously find the surest proof of a certain event to be the outcome that it gives rise to? The Qur'an supports this, when in so many locations it directs us to observe the ends and outcomes, both in favorable and adverse situations. Likewise, the Messenger, peace be upon him, says: "Many peoples that preceded you brought about their perdition when they forgave a thief if he happened to be a person of high status; but punished a thief if he had no status." We have to think of the above tradition not as a sacred text, but as a historical law: It empirically directs us to observe how a certain line of behavior led to a certain outcome; we do not expect a more rigorous rule than to measure the correctness of a certain behavior against the outcome that it leads to. That is the gist of historical laws, and in this way history would be our lab for examining human behavior. Is not this the way people conduct their experiments and do their observations in the labs of scientific investigation? Our observation of human behavior must always be given priority in our scientific investigation. Take now the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion;" (2:256). Here we have the words of God, but still we may make wrong deductions in analyzing the verse. Muslims have indeed blundered a lot when they failed to let people choose their beliefs without compulsion. They assumed that should we act on the above verse, allowing people to choose to be believers or unbelievers, great numbers of Muslims would abandon the faith. This delusion has led to tragic situations. Why do not those who doubt the truth of this verse notice how the former Soviet Union collapsed under our very noses, when it was the state that practiced compulsion in beliefs. It collapsed, and it was such a resounding collapse! And it will be followed by all those who try to coerce people to accept doctrines that they do not want to accept. It is the law that those who use compulsion will perish, and God says that in another location of the Qur'an: "Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with 'Ad people, of the city of Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all the land? And with the Thamud people, who cut out huge rocks in the valley? And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these transgressed beyond bounds in the lands, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties. For thy Lord is as a Guardian on a watch-tower." (89:6-14) The Qur'an mentions both the conduct of people, and their ends or outcomes; it also affirms that the law will be applied again every time similar conduct is done: "If ye revert, We shall revert to Our punishments;" (17:8) "Never do We give such requital except to such as are ungrateful rejecters." (34:17) Is it not right that, in the light of the above verses and rules, we say: Have you not seen what your Lord has done to the Soviet Union? And to the Shah of Iran? Let it be noticed that the events which took place after the revelation of the Qur'an were more momentous and numerous than the events which took place before it. Therefore we say: Where is the Soviet Union, with all its war heads and missiles? It was definitely greater than Pharaoh and Thamud. We may also, with reference to history, predict that the United States will not be what it is now. It may stay as a great power, but its present arrogance and high-handed ways will definitely vanish. At present, it does not deal with people even-handedly: It rates some as above the law, and rates others as helpless and so it assaults them. When God condemns those who deal with people with double measures (83:1), what about a great power that has no measure at all? Pharaoh was destroyed for he, 'elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them;" (28:4) Another thing about inequality and arrogance is the Veto Right; it is the worst form of polytheism in the world; and the worst thing about it is that no one is pressing for its elimination. On the contrary, those who do not have this right crave it and cry out that they should be granted this right. One is reminded of Qarun, the extremely wealthy man of Moses's people, who, when he went forth among his people in the full pride of his worldly glitter, those whose aim was the life of this world said: 'Oh! That we had the like of what Qarun has got!' (the Qur'an, 28:79) Exactly as many now envy those who have the Veto Right! It is true that anyone who recites the Qur'an is familiar with Qarun's story, but we still have events in the real world to be observed and analyzed. One people, the people of Jonah, are singled out in the Qur'an, as having succeeded in learning the lesson, and making the right change: "Why was there not a single township among those We warned, which believed, so its faith should have profited it – except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the penalty of ignominy, in the life of the present, and permitted them to enjoy their life for a while;" (10:98). People do have some sense of the benefits of observing the signs of history. Iqbal had this in mind when he suggested in the fifth chapter of his book, Reconstruction of the Religious Thought in Islam, that one criterion for judging the mission and message of a prophet is to observe the kind of human being he produced, the kind of culture that emerged as a result of his message. He particularly stresses one great idea of Islam, which is putting an end to prophethood. He also says: "Man is naturally controlled by his emotion and instinct; it is only the conductive mind which enables man to have control over his environment. When we succeed in rising to having this faculty, we have to lay it more firmly and solidly, by suppressing any ways of knowledge that do not employ this method. "Now having the above in mind," adds Iqbal, "we find that the Prophet of Islam, appeared at the juncture between the ancient world and the modern world. As far as chronology is concerned, his message belonged to the ancient world, but as far as the spirit of that message is concerned, he belongs to the modern world. In his message, new sources of knowledge are introduced, that more fit the modern life with the advent of Islam, and in this way Islam announces the birth of the conductive mind. "Now prophethood, as it is perceived in Islam, reaches it perfection, by realizing the need for its termination. And that perception indicates the deep realization of the impossibility of having man led for ever with a harness. By abolishing monasticism and hereditary monarchy, by the Qur'an's exhortation everywhere to resort to the intellect and experimentation, by its insistence on exploring the universe, and getting acquainted with the lives of the preceding peoples, by pointing out all the above as sources of human knowledge, the Qur'an is stressing the idea of putting an end to prophethood… The Qur'an announces the existence of two more sources of knowledge in existence: nature and history. The spirit of Islam is demonstrated more manifestly in opening up a way to research through these two sources. In the signs of the sun and the moon, in observing the extension of the shade, and the succession of the day and the light, and the diversity of colors and tongues, and the moving around of fortunes among peoples, we may not pass by all that without taking note of them." To get at things like the above needs a great effort. Even a man as great as al-Ghazali said that the mind's function was to lead you to Allah and his Prophet, and then you do not need it any more. That was the way they saw things. One wonders now how things seemed like this to them when the Qur'an warns us not to be of "those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works;" (18:104) or the other verse: "Is he, then, to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring, so that he looks upon it as good, equal to one who is rightly guided?" (35:8) But history is always there, no matter how people ignore its lessons: it is there to teach us its lessons. It is indeed a patient instructor; its laws and ways are firm and solid; it will never desist, it is always waiting for us to change our ability to comprehend. I am quite contented that God will enable those who come after us to appreciate the importance of these issues, and understand them in ways that we are quite unable to imagine. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 113 43 2009-08-23T10:01:05Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Q. 4: In your writings, you stress that there are two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an, and human history – that a man who ignores human history cannot think properly. So how would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an?== {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 4: Well, I may say again, Abdul-Jabbar, you have quite succeeded in touching on those ideas which are most intimate to me. Yes, it is fair what you require. I need to be quite clear and open. I need to provide abundant examples and illustrations. We read in the Bible how Jesus Christ used to speak in parables, and never to speak but with parables. We also read in the Qur'an: "And such are the parables We set forth for mankind, but only those understand them who have knowledge;" (29:43) It is true that a person who does not know history does not only lack knowledge – he also is not reliable as a thinker. Knowledge and the intellect are history; they are experience. Without history, there will be no knowledge and no intellect. To have sound thinking is to relate causes and effects; the mind is not a system of thinking, but a system of relating causes with effects, and how that may be translated into a reality. When a human being is born, he is endowed with the potential capacity to read; however, he may live all his life illiterate; therefore that potential he had for learning how to read and write remains idle, and the ability is not transformed into a reality. Likewise, the word ' 'akl, mind' is not used in the Qur'an as a noun, but as a verb. The Qur'an does not say that people 'do not have a mind,' (because they were endowed with the ability), bur rather that they 'do not understand,' that is they do not relate causes to effects. It is history that testifies to the truthfulness of the Qur'an. Allah himself, as we find in His Scripture, directs us to go to history to make sure that the Qur'an is authentic: "Soon will We show them Our signs in the furthest regions of the earth, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things?" (41:54) It is so because no one can meddle with the outcomes of history. Many make a mistake here when they confound what people state, what they think about events, with the outcomes of people's thoughts. The history of communism is not what people, those supporting communism or those opposing it, have written about it: The history os communism is its outcome. This is not a condemning the objective of fair distribution of resources, but a condemnation of a particular way adopted for fulfilling that objective. The objective itself was not wrong, but the way adopted for fulfilling that objective was. For if we were to condemn the objective, we would have to concede that Islam also failed. But things are not like this. Let me deviate a little to put in something that will be seen to be relevant by and by. It is fruitful to compare physical health and mental health. There was a time when people knew almost nothing about the causes of diseases; epidemics invaded large areas and reaped many thousands or even millions. But there are really other diseases, diseases of wrong thinking, regional or universal, that also kill abundant numbers. Like the epidemics, wars are the result of diseases, though they are intellectual, conceptual diseases. Before the germs that killed human beings were discovered, people used to kiss somebody that they loved, killing the beloved one unintentionally – and they cried over the dear victim of their own ignorance. That is something that we understand, but do not we transmit fatal ideas to people, being quite careful in conveying those ideas most honestly? And then, when those ideas result in fighting and hostility, and when people are the victims of the hostility among them, we fail to see how this stems from our poor understanding of human problems. The Qur'an asserts that it is left to us to purify our souls or corrupt them (91:9-10). And so we need to work hard on these topics, to get over our illusions and fancies. One way to do so is to think about the relation between a text and the real things in the world, like trees, or living things, which are handled by the text. I once wrote about that relation. between the text and a concrete object, like the tree, or a living thing, or even an inanimate thing. Now, no matter how well and how extensively scientists or others write about a living or an inanimate object, their writings will not do justice to that thing, until we go to the thing itself and examine it directly. That is the actual reference when any disagreement rises. Even if God describes something in words, that created thing, the concrete thing itself, shows its reality more evidently than any words. Let it be noted that when God reveals a Book, He uses human words (this is indicated in the Qur'an in the following verse: "We sent not an apostle except to teach in the language of his own people;" 14:4,) but when He creates something, He does not use human elements. Let it be remembered, too, that God did not send down a Book until men had learned to read and write; and reading and writing are human things, with all human shortcomings. The Divine creation, on the other hand, has all the absoluteness of God, although creation goes on developing and progressing. We can now connect the last two paragraphs to history and say that Allah directs us to refer to His creation itself to learn the wisdom of the creation. We find the following in the Qur'an: - 'Travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who rejected truth,' (3:137) - 'Then see what was the end of those who were admonished, but heeded not,' (37:73) - 'So see what was the end of those who made mischief,' (7:103) - 'Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime' (7:84) - 'But see what was the end of those who did wrong,' (10:39). That about the wrong-doers; about the upright, we also have another set of verses: - 'The end is best for the righteous,' (7:128) - ' .. who gets home in the end,' (13:42) - '.. Soon will ye know who it is whose end will be best,' (6:135). It is also relevant to recall how Iqbal finds the best criterion of the quality of a civilization or culture, to observe the type of man it has produced. These points are not difficult; people often notice similar facts spontaneously; so we need to ponder over them. Have you not noticed how people spontaneously find the surest proof of a certain event to be the outcome that it gives rise to? The Qur'an supports this, when in so many locations it directs us to observe the ends and outcomes, both in favorable and adverse situations. Likewise, the Messenger, peace be upon him, says: "Many peoples that preceded you brought about their perdition when they forgave a thief if he happened to be a person of high status; but punished a thief if he had no status." We have to think of the above tradition not as a sacred text, but as a historical law: It empirically directs us to observe how a certain line of behavior led to a certain outcome; we do not expect a more rigorous rule than to measure the correctness of a certain behavior against the outcome that it leads to. That is the gist of historical laws, and in this way history would be our lab for examining human behavior. Is not this the way people conduct their experiments and do their observations in the labs of scientific investigation? Our observation of human behavior must always be given priority in our scientific investigation. Take now the Qur'anic verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion;" (2:256). Here we have the words of God, but still we may make wrong deductions in analyzing the verse. Muslims have indeed blundered a lot when they failed to let people choose their beliefs without compulsion. They assumed that should we act on the above verse, allowing people to choose to be believers or unbelievers, great numbers of Muslims would abandon the faith. This delusion has led to tragic situations. Why do not those who doubt the truth of this verse notice how the former Soviet Union collapsed under our very noses, when it was the state that practiced compulsion in beliefs. It collapsed, and it was such a resounding collapse! And it will be followed by all those who try to coerce people to accept doctrines that they do not want to accept. It is the law that those who use compulsion will perish, and God says that in another location of the Qur'an: "Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with 'Ad people, of the city of Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all the land? And with the Thamud people, who cut out huge rocks in the valley? And with Pharaoh, lord of stakes? All these transgressed beyond bounds in the lands, and heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore did thy Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse penalties. For thy Lord is as a Guardian on a watch-tower." (89:6-14) The Qur'an mentions both the conduct of people, and their ends or outcomes; it also affirms that the law will be applied again every time similar conduct is done: "If ye revert, We shall revert to Our punishments;" (17:8) "Never do We give such requital except to such as are ungrateful rejecters." (34:17) Is it not right that, in the light of the above verses and rules, we say: Have you not seen what your Lord has done to the Soviet Union? And to the Shah of Iran? Let it be noticed that the events which took place after the revelation of the Qur'an were more momentous and numerous than the events which took place before it. Therefore we say: Where is the Soviet Union, with all its war heads and missiles? It was definitely greater than Pharaoh and Thamud. We may also, with reference to history, predict that the United States will not be what it is now. It may stay as a great power, but its present arrogance and high-handed ways will definitely vanish. At present, it does not deal with people even-handedly: It rates some as above the law, and rates others as helpless and so it assaults them. When God condemns those who deal with people with double measures (83:1), what about a great power that has no measure at all? Pharaoh was destroyed for he, 'elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them;" (28:4) Another thing about inequality and arrogance is the Veto Right; it is the worst form of polytheism in the world; and the worst thing about it is that no one is pressing for its elimination. On the contrary, those who do not have this right crave it and cry out that they should be granted this right. One is reminded of Qarun, the extremely wealthy man of Moses's people, who, when he went forth among his people in the full pride of his worldly glitter, those whose aim was the life of this world said: 'Oh! That we had the like of what Qarun has got!' (the Qur'an, 28:79) Exactly as many now envy those who have the Veto Right! It is true that anyone who recites the Qur'an is familiar with Qarun's story, but we still have events in the real world to be observed and analyzed. One people, the people of Jonah, are singled out in the Qur'an, as having succeeded in learning the lesson, and making the right change: "Why was there not a single township among those We warned, which believed, so its faith should have profited it – except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the penalty of ignominy, in the life of the present, and permitted them to enjoy their life for a while;" (10:98). People do have some sense of the benefits of observing the signs of history. Iqbal had this in mind when he suggested in the fifth chapter of his book, Reconstruction of the Religious Thought in Islam, that one criterion for judging the mission and message of a prophet is to observe the kind of human being he produced, the kind of culture that emerged as a result of his message. He particularly stresses one great idea of Islam, which is putting an end to prophethood. He also says: "Man is naturally controlled by his emotion and instinct; it is only the conductive mind which enables man to have control over his environment. When we succeed in rising to having this faculty, we have to lay it more firmly and solidly, by suppressing any ways of knowledge that do not employ this method. "Now having the above in mind," adds Iqbal, "we find that the Prophet of Islam, appeared at the juncture between the ancient world and the modern world. As far as chronology is concerned, his message belonged to the ancient world, but as far as the spirit of that message is concerned, he belongs to the modern world. In his message, new sources of knowledge are introduced, that more fit the modern life with the advent of Islam, and in this way Islam announces the birth of the conductive mind. "Now prophethood, as it is perceived in Islam, reaches it perfection, by realizing the need for its termination. And that perception indicates the deep realization of the impossibility of having man led for ever with a harness. By abolishing monasticism and hereditary monarchy, by the Qur'an's exhortation everywhere to resort to the intellect and experimentation, by its insistence on exploring the universe, and getting acquainted with the lives of the preceding peoples, by pointing out all the above as sources of human knowledge, the Qur'an is stressing the idea of putting an end to prophethood… The Qur'an announces the existence of two more sources of knowledge in existence: nature and history. The spirit of Islam is demonstrated more manifestly in opening up a way to research through these two sources. In the signs of the sun and the moon, in observing the extension of the shade, and the succession of the day and the light, and the diversity of colors and tongues, and the moving around of fortunes among peoples, we may not pass by all that without taking note of them." To get at things like the above needs a great effort. Even a man as great as al-Ghazali said that the mind's function was to lead you to Allah and his Prophet, and then you do not need it any more. That was the way they saw things. One wonders now how things seemed like this to them when the Qur'an warns us not to be of "those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works;" (18:104) or the other verse: "Is he, then, to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring, so that he looks upon it as good, equal to one who is rightly guided?" (35:8) But history is always there, no matter how people ignore its lessons: it is there to teach us its lessons. It is indeed a patient instructor; its laws and ways are firm and solid; it will never desist, it is always waiting for us to change our ability to comprehend. I am quite contented that God will enable those who come after us to appreciate the importance of these issues, and understand them in ways that we are quite unable to imagine. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 43 2009-05-06T08:08:47Z Admin 1 Created page with '==Your writings stress two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an and world history; you emphasize that a person who is ignorant of history cannot have sound knowledge. So how would yo...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==Your writings stress two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an and world history; you emphasize that a person who is ignorant of history cannot have sound knowledge. So how would you relate world history to the Qur'an? How can world history support the Qur'an?== {{ Current Islamic Issues }} I feel bound to repeat that you put your hand very accurately on the ideas that are of prime importance to me, though your tone might be redolent with protest against my line of thought; let me take that to be a wish on your part that I be more explicit and elaborate. Well, yes, we have to be most explicit, and to give more examples and to variegate our style. We learn that from Jesus who, as we see in the Bible, used to teach people with parables, and he did not teach except through parables. Likewise, we read in the Qur'an: " And such are the Parables We set forth for mankind, but only those understand them who have Knowledge (29, 43). It is true, my brother Abdu-Jabbar, that a person who does not know history not only has defective knowledge; his knowledge is untrustworthy. It is so because knowledge and the mind are the product of history, the product of experience and experiments. It is true that without history, there can be no science and no intellect, for the essence of intellect is relating causes to effects. The mind is not a device for understanding – it is a process, relating causes to effects, and a perception of the possibility of transforming them to reality. I can illustrate that point with the example of reading and writing: a human being is born equipped with the ability to learn reading and writing, but that faculty may remain untapped, and he may remain an illiterate all his life; the potential may never be transformed into an actual reality. The same is true about the mind. It is for this reason that the word 'akl = mind' is never used as a noun in the Qur'an, but verb derivatives are used. The Qur'an does not say of any group that they have no mind 'akl'; it rather says that they fail to think, that is they fail to relate causes to effects. It is history which testifies to the truth of the Qur'an. In this way, history is the evidence, the proof. God commands us in his book to refer to history for testimony. " Soon will We show them Our Signs in the regions of the world, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses all things? (41, 53)." It is so because the outcomes of actions in history are not subject to manipulation, although many people confound this fact when they fail to distinguish between what people write in their interpretation of events, and the outcomes of events. For instance, it must be clear to us that history is not what people say about communism, whether they are supporters or opponents of communism. History is the outcome which accrued from the application of communism. This is not a condemnation of the idea of equality in communism; it is rather a condemnation of the way that it was applied. The idea here is not to condemn – otherwise, it would be valid to say that Islam also failed and declined because its followers are failures, but that is not so. It is worth our while to carry out comparison between investigating the laws for physical health and those for mental health, i.e. the soundness of that which is in the soul (nafs). When people were ignorant of the causes of diseases, how epidemic diseases came over the world and harvested huge numbers, and when unjust wars were waged, on a local, regional or world level, with the intent of robbing people's property, such events reflected intellectual and conceptual diseases. People used to kiss their dears and nears, and thereby transmit to them the diseases that afflicted them, unaware of what they did; and they cried over those dear ones later when they died. In the same way, we transmit to others deadly ideas, and most carefully we do that; and then, when, in consequence of our teaching, they fight and hate each other, and they fail to reach reconciliation with others, we are not aware of what brought about such tragic events: our poor understanding of the human situation. We need to work most diligently over those problems, so that we may haply extract the fallacy and illusions lying behind them. I once wrote, in the course of a discussion of the relationship between reality and texts that we may better appreciate that relationship by thinking of a tree or an organism or even any element in nature: no matter how much is written, and how admirable is the scholarly work done about such topics, the real being is the referent whenever people are in doubt. All the scientists' writings are less than the reality of the thing, and therefore we need to refer to the subject-matter itself, the tree or the animal or the human being signified. That is the final referent in case of any dispute. I wrote also that even if God revealed a book about some of these phenomena, that material, concrete creature is a more cogent pointer to God's creation than the book laid down by God the Almighty. It is so because when God created the universe, He did not include any human element in it; it was just His Divine work. A book, a scripture revealed by God, on the other hand, is revealed in the tongue of the people to whom it is addressed, as we have it pointed out in the Qur'an: " We did not send a Messenger except to teach in the tongue of his people (14, 4)." God did not reveal any book until people learned reading and writing. Reading and writing are human functions, and are characterized with the imperfection of all human things. Creation, on the other hand, is a Divine fact, and so it has the absoluteness of divine things, though gradually evolved. If is for such facts that God commands us to refer to His creation to realize the wisdom of His revelations. Here are some directives from the Qur'an about that: Now see what was the end of those who rejected Truth (43, 25) Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime (7, 84) So see what was the end of those who acted corruptly (27, 14) Now behold what was the end of those who did wrong (28, 40) Then see what was the end of those who were admonished, but heeded not (37, 73) That is on the side of wrong-doers. About the well-guided He says: The end is for those who are righteous (11, 49) who gets home in the end (13, 42) who it is whose end will be best (6, 135) As I said above, Iqbal notes that for a verification of the soundness of a civilization or culture, we have to study the kind of individual produced by that civilization or culture. These are basic matters that we need to reflect on; they are not too abstruse. They can be apprehended intuitively, since it is inherent in human beings to discriminate right from wrong when they can see the outcome of deeds and actual realities. We also find in the Qur'an so many exhortations to direct attention to consequences, good and bad, and that is drawing lessons from outcomes. If we turn our attention to the Messenger's, peace be upon him, traditions we find him say: "That which brought those before you to their perdition is that when a person of noble family stole, they disregarded his offense; but when a person of low birth stole, they punished him." What the Prophet is stating here is a historical law, and history is the laboratory for checking the soundness of behaviours and perceptions. The laboratory of history is open to all people, the same as with a material laboratory, where people can carry out experiments on various things, from atoms and electricity to chemical and organic compounds, and up to the most amazing of all creatures, man. For instance, when God says: "Let there be no compulsion in religion (2, 256),", we can misunderstand this injunction; and indeed, how deplorably do Muslims blunder when they reason that should there be no compulsion in religion Muslims will lose ground, and people will abandon religion. This gross delusion leads them into pathetic blunders – they fail to notice how in our own age the Soviet Union collapsed under our eyes, and it was the country where coercion was used to suppress religion; its collapse was such a resounding fall. In fact all those who coerce people in religion will fall – there may be no compulsion for people to accept God's religion. The Qur'an recounts the practices of many parties who used compulsion: read for instance: " Don’t you see how your Lord dealt with the 'Ad people, of the city of Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all the land? And with the Thamud people, who cut out huge rocks in th evalley? And with Pharaoh, Lord of Stakes? All these transgressed beyond bounds in the lands. And heaped therein mischief on mischief. Therefore your Lord poured on them a scourge of diverse chastisements: for your Lord is as a Guardian on a watch-tower (88, 6-14). " The Qur'an relates the events, and also mentions the outcomes. It asserts that the pattern follows a law, which will be applied to all those who commit the same mistakes; one may cite in support of this: " Don't you see how your Lord dealt with the 'Ad people? (88, 6)", "If you revert to your sins, We shall revert to Our punishments (17, 8) ," and " Never do We give such requital except to such as are ungrateful rejecters (34, 17)". Is it not right that we generalize a little, saying for instance: Have you not seen what God did to Hitler, Napoleon, the Soviet Union and the Shah of Iran? Indeed, the events which took place after the Qur'an was revealed are much more in number and immensity than the events which took place before. Where is the Soviet Union, with all its warheads and missiles? It was much greater than Pharaoh, and Thamood who carved rocks in the valley. We can, by drawing on history, predict that the United States will collapse, not perish, but cease to be the overpowering, arrogant power that it is now – we say that in view of America's double standards in dealing with people: some are for her of noble status, and so are raised above the law; while it persecutes the weak. Referring again to the Qur'an, we find that God says: " Woe to those who deal in fraud (83, 1)," which pertains to double standards in measuring goods, so how much more grave is the double standards in dealing with peoples and nations, and what about those who have no standards at all? It is walking in Pharaoh's steps to rise above other human beings, as the Qur'an describes: "Truly Pharaoh elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sections, depressing a small group among them : their sons he slew, but he kept alive their females (28, 3)." The right of veto is the worst and gravest kind of idolatry, and the most glaring type of injustice, but no one seems to care to see it abolished; the utmost that others wish for is that they also be granted the same right. This echoes what the Qur'an recounts when Qarun came out among people, in all his spleandour; and some people said: "Oh! that we had the like of what Qarun has got (28, 79)." Those who recite the Qur'an are familiar with this story. Many nations are mentioned by the Qur'an; it tells how they perished, but perdition here is an intellectual one, not a physical one; it is a set of concepts that vanished, not the persons themselves – you see that the progeny of the ancient Egyptians have survived, but their system of concepts is not the same as the ancient one. One people in the Qur'an to have received respect is the people of Jonas; they had the sense to take heed and change; in the words of the Qur'an: "Why was there not a single township (among those We warned), which believed – so its Faith should have profited it – except the People of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the Penalty of Ignominy in the life of the Present, and permitted them to enjoy their life for a while (10, 98)." The common sense did perceive some inklings of the subject we are discussing here – people would say, as someone put it in verse: "Contemplate the signs of the world around you; for what you see is signals sent down to you from Heaven." But at the hands of Iqbal much insight can be discerned – see for instance this excerpt from Chapter Five in his The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam: Another way of judging the value of a prophet's religious experience, therefore, would be to examine the type of manhood that he has created, and the cultural world that has sprung out of the spirit of his message… in order to gain an insight into the process of ideation that underlies [the ruling concepts in Islam], and thus to catch a glimpse of the soul that found expression through them .. it is necessary to understand the cultural value of a great idea in Islam – I mean the finality of the institution of prophethood… Man is primarily governed by passion and instinct. Inductive reason, which alone makes man master of his environment, is an achievement; and when once born it must be reinforced by inhibiting the growth of other modes of knowledge… Looking at the matter from this point of view, then, the Prophet of Islam seems to stand between the ancient and the modern world. In so far as the source of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the ancient world; in so far as the spirit of his revelation is concerned he belongs to the modern world. In him life discovers other sources of knowledge suitable to its new directions. The birth of Islam .. is the birth of inductive reason. In Islam prophecy reaches its perfection in discovering the need of its own abolition. This involves the keen perception that life cannot for ever be kept in leading strings … The abolition of priesthood and hereditary kingship in Islam, the constant appeal to reason and experience in the Qur'an, and the emphasis that it lays on nature and history as sources of human knowledge, are all different aspects of the same idea of finality … According to the Qur'an, there are two other sources of knowledge – nature and history; and it is in tapping these sources of knowledge that the spirit of Islam is seen at its best. The Qur'an sees signs of ultimate reality in the 'sun', the 'moon', 'the lengthening out of shadows', 'the alternation of day and night', 'the variety of human colour and tongues', 'the alternation of the days of success and reverse among people' … And a Muslim's duty is to reflect on these signs and not to pass by them 'as if he is dead and blind', for he 'who does not see the signs in this life will remain blind to the realities of the life to come.' Well, my esteemed brother Abdul-Jabbar, it seems to me that we suffer from great dearth intellectually. It is unfortunate that even a man like Al-Ghazali says: "The task of reason is to guide man to God and the Messenger, and then it takes no further action." That is then the way they perceived the function of reason. But how can this go with God's pointing to a person that “Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their work (18, 104)?” And how can it go with that other Qur'anic statement: “ Is he, then, to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring, so that he looks upon it as good (35, 8)”? History is indeed a patient teacher, never giving up the application of its laws; never losing patience until we change and start to see the point. I am optimistic about the future – I feel sure that God will enable those who come later to see the importance of these issues, that they will understand them in ways that cannot occur to our minds. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 26 118 117 2009-08-23T10:19:32Z Admin 1 moved [[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] to [[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 5: Jawdat Sa'eed is a great promoter of the repudiation of violence. He goes so far as to call for the discarding of the sword and all weaponry; he likens the purchase of arms to the purchase of idols. His doctrine of the 'Way of Adam's Son' is inseparable from Jawdat Sa'eed's name, since that way was put forth in the title of his first book. So the question would naturally arise: Is Jawdat Sa'eed upholding the annulment of 'jihad', an established Islamic obligation, even when all its conditions are met? Is he calling for disobeying Allah's command, "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power," (the Qur'an, 8:60)? Is it right in his point of view that we be passive spectators while the Zionist enemy is amassing its huge arsenal? Is he calling for terminating the resistance movements in the face of destructive powers?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 5: You are trying to provoke me, Abdul-Jabbar, in this longest of your questions. But you are right to require that I should make things most evident, to say all that is to say concerning the use of violence. When I published my book, The Way of Adam's Better Son, more than thirty years ago, I was concerned with bringing out my idea, just to announce it. I did not hope then to convince people of the presented ideas; and that is why I said in the preface that the book was for announcement and not for persuasion. Many people wrote to me that I had to try to persuade people, and to write with that intention, not just to declare my ideas. All that shows you how difficult that topic is. Many doubts were raised concerning it. But I assure you that once we understand the topic, we will wonder how it was unclear to us. It is something like when people for many centuries could not understand that it is not the sun that goes round us, but it is we who go round the sun. This shows me in what darkness we still live! We need to explore the prevalent concepts which impede the way to understanding, what blocks people's hearing and vision. This is something that is given great attention in the Qur'an, when it says: "Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return to the path;" (2:18) and when it says: "Has he made the gods all into one God? Truly this is a wonderful thing! … We never heard the like of this among the people of these latter days;" (38:5-7) That the Qur'an is in our hands avails us nothing. Do not you see how the Jews and the Christians have the Bible, but it avails them nothing? And science and all fields of knowledge are there, but they do not help us. The tragic condition of the Muslim World is glaringly obvious to any observer, and that should be a great motive for people to inquire and look for the facts: What makes Muslims the greatest losers in the whole world? That was my point of departure, when I started my work; and I had confidence in persuading the human mind, not in subduing it. This brings me to your question. Unless we admit that man will give on the basis of persuasion more than he will give on the basis of intimidation and compulsion, then we have not started to understand man or even God. So let us look at three points. The First Thing is Allah: We think that we know about Allah, but we really do not; just as the verses of the Qur'an describe this situation: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost!" (41:23) This must be a reminder to us that our understanding of God does not have to be right. I here remember Ali Shari'ati, a giant of a thinker, a sociologist who specialized in comparative religions: When I read his book Man and Islam I felt that he was like a first-class athlete moving among crippled people; that is because he has eyes that can see, ears that can hear, and a mind that functions most effectively. He can strike fire in the hearts of those who read well, and he is a man of great faith. Ali Shari'ati says: "Every society makes up its god to match its light;" which is very true, for if we want to know God, we have no way of knowing Him except through His creation. The Second Thing to know is God's creation, this universe. We need to know it; and when we learn the facts of the universe, we shall find that God created it to work on the basis of firm sunan, laws; sunan that are firm but that leave room for development; I mean that God creates new things, that God as the Qur'an says: "adds to creation as He pleases;" (35:1). The Third Thing to know is man, and we have to deal with man as a separate entity, as different from other living beings, because of the nervous system; it is through the nervous system that man is enabled to reflect and to discover the laws. All three need to be taken together. For when you focus on the universe, you find all it constituents point to Allah, and we know God through the universe. It is by observing the universe that we discover how the camels, the mountains, and societies were created. It is because the universe is based on laws that man can control it: by understanding the ways of the world man can control it. That is about discovering the laws and acting on them. When we come to how men deal with men, we find that they hasten to employ muscles rather than understanding. When God says in the Qur'an: "Mankind was one single nation, and God sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings;" (2:213) I find that mankind was one nation and is still so. They think alike: they everywhere still resort to exercising physical strength to subjugate the others. It was so in the past, and it is still so at present. What Pharaoh said, 'I am your lord, most high;' is still used most widely; and the Pharaoh of our time, America, still says what the ancient Pharaoh used to say. As long as might is right then it is the jungle law that is predominant, and mankind is still one nation, that is, they are like-minded. Men worshipped power, and still worship power, and worship the one who has the power. This is then the source of discord in the life of man: since man has a nervous system that is capable of understanding, and of controlling his life through understanding, then he should not be dominated by another human being like him. This is my life mission that I raised long ago, and that I am still working on. Only last year I published a book entitled Be Like Adam's Son; and I hope to publish another entitled Break Your Bow. When I say that purchasing weapons is not unlike the purchasing of idols, I say that to shock the Muslim, to really shock the Muslim and the non-Muslim. I am really saying: Mankind! You can really communicate in harmony, and you cannot go on living on the basis of the jungle law. You need to lay concepts and principles and laws for a common harmonious life. Man will not be man until and unless he accepts the way of Adam's better son. When can we understand this, and help Muslims and all human beings to understand this? We need here to refer to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, for without him we shall not be able to understand this issue, especially in our present conditions. I say the Prophet, peace be upon him, because he represents all prophets, and he it is that testifies to their messages, as the Qur'an says: "Truly We have sent thee as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner, and as one who invites to God's grace by his leave, and as a lamp spreading light;" (33:45-56) All the prophets' religion is one, the core being belief in One God, not taking associates with God. As for the rituals, they vary from one prophet's time to another. As for dealing among people, it develops with time, but must never violate the cardinal principle of justice. Indeed the belief in One God is manifested in justice, for injustice is the worst form of polytheism, and polytheism is the worst injustice. To establish justice among people is to establish monotheism, the common terms between different parties, "that we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than God;" (3:64) What we have in the above verse is the principle of fairness, that I grant you the same right as I expect you to grant me; that I forbid you what I forbid myself. No principle can be superior to that, when you grant the other the same as you allow yourself. One merit of this principle is that you do not have to wait for the other to accept the principle. One adopts the principle, and does not wait for the other's consent. How can one be a Muslim if he does not accept the way of Adam's son? The Messenger, peace be upon him, adhered to this way, when he called people to the faith, compelling no one and dictating no one to accept the faith. Those who accepted the faith were subjected to torture by the Quraysh tribe; the unbelievers tried all they could to compel the believers to revert to disbelief, and when the Messenger, peace be upon him, saw one of the tortured families, he said: "Have patience, Abu Yaser's family; let our meeting place be in Paradise;" not calling them to rise against their tormenters; he only urged them to adhere to the faith, not to give in to their adversaries. The Qur'an itself taught believers: "hold back your hands from fight but establish regular prayers;" (4:77). In the very first sura (chapter) revealed to the Prophet, peace be upon him, the Qur'an taught the believers to adhere to their worship and to disobey the trespasser who insisted on imposing his opinion with force: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … heed him not; but bow down in adoration;" (96:9-19). In another location we recite: "And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in God, Exalted in power;" (85:8). The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not defend himself; and in this we see how working for Islam, from the first moment, started with patience and enduring injury. We have ample evidence in the Qur'an about that. In one location we have in general terms how the prophets dealt with injury: " Has not the story reached you, (O people!), of those who (went) before you? - of the people of Noah, and 'Ad, and Thamud? - And of those who (came) after them? None knows them but Allah. To them came apostles with Clear (Signs); but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said: "We do deny (the mission) on which ye have been sent, and we are really in suspicious (disquieting) doubt as to that to which ye invite us." Their apostles said: "Is there a doubt about Allah, The Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He Who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed!" They said: "Ah! ye are no more than human, like ourselves! Ye wish to turn us away from the (gods) our fathers used to worship: then bring us some clear authority." Their apostles said to them: "True, we are human like yourselves, but Allah doth grant His grace to such of his servants as He pleases. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as Allah permits. And on Allah let all men of faith put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on Allah. Indeed He hath guided us to the Ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust in Allah." And the Unbelievers said to their apostles: "Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or ye shall return to our religion." But their Lord inspired (this Message) to them: "Verily We shall cause the wrong-doers to perish! "And verily We shall cause you to abide in the land, and succeed them. This for such as fear the Time when they shall stand before My tribunal,- such as fear the punishment denounced." (14:9-14) What we have above is a debate not of one particular prophet, but a generic one; and it represents the various peoples. Of course, in other locations the Qur'an handles single situations, but it is the same theme and the same purport of debate: on the prophets' side, it is a call to the way of truth; on the side of the peoples, it is inflicting hurt, banishing, and using compulsion in the hope of bringing a convert back into the people's dogma. It is evidently worth our while to analyze this scenario, to see how the prophets dealt with this situation. They indeed chose to deal with their peoples on an equal footing, on common terms that apply to both parties in an equal measure. The principle of the prophets was: We bring forth our call, and you bring forth your call; neither party will resort to coercion or hurt; no one will be turned out of their home. So let him believe who chooses, and let him disbelieve who chooses: "Let there be no compulsion in religion;" (2:256) "Let him who will, believe, and let him who will, reject the faith;" (18:29). There is no room for compulsion in religion, in opinion or in beliefs. So let there be competition in persuasion, and let there be no resorting to violence or compulsion; but if the opposing party resorts to such ways, we ourselves must not do the same; "We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us;" (14:12) until people are convinced of the views of either party. In this way, the prophets laid down a general law for dealing with others in the sphere of ideas: that violence should be neutralized; that there should be no compulsion, in religion, opinions, or in politics; that both parties (or we, if they do not agree to do the same) use only persuasion. Only wisdom should be used and a beautiful tone and language; debate and dispute in the best and most gracious way; until change takes place in society. That is the way adopted by Muhammad, peace be upon him, the model for the upright people who will not initiate aggression, and will never resort to compulsion. Even after the others inflict hurt and use compulsive ways, we may not retaliate with hurt or compulsion, in our endeavor to establish a community that embraces in general the upright way (of no compulsion). After the society has converted to the upright condition, then it may protect people's thoughts and beliefs from aggression: and that right of protecting people's thoughts and beliefs is to be applied to believers in the same way as it is to be applied to unbelievers. The others have the same right as believers do in calling people to their ideas, in a peaceful way, disputing in a gracious way. Not many Muslims at present tolerate to grant others the right to call to their ideas, in an equal degree as they (Muslims) believe they are privileged to have. The reason is that they do not have enough confidence in ideas, or in the religion they hold. But no! They have really to grant others the same right they wish to have in calling to what they believe, banning to others only what they ban to themselves. Indeed, things will be like this by and by, despite anyone's resistance. What will settle down is the law of "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth;" (the Qur'an, 13:17). In the same way, if society begins to decline and decay, a Muslim may not resort to any way other than addressing people and directing them to what is right. Should the community accept his call, and after people are converted to it, then that society has the right to protect everybody's right to talk and remonstrate. Those who refuse and insist on employing force, rather than debating in peace, then they are reverting to the law of the jungle; in this case the prophets, one and all, adopted the same attitude, that of Adam's better son; "We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us;" (14:12). In this way the prophets set the principle of genuine democracy. The mistake of modern democracies is that they permit attacking and killing a tyrant or oppressor. This is not the right way; the right way is rather to work peacefully until the society is converted without compulsion. Muslims at present do not accept the principles of modern democracies, and do not accept human rights. The human rights as put forth by the prophets are predominantly not 'rights' but 'duties'. It is our duty to bring into being the right society and to protect it, all through debate and persuasion, never through compulsion. Those who use compulsion are virtually calling others to use compulsion; in this case, both the victor and the defeated will be applying the jungle law; both, as the prophets teach us, merit to be punished in hell: it is so because both parties are holding up force as a deity. This is a stumbling block for so many people, and it very often hampers understanding. The prophets did not resort to self defense when the representative of society hurt them on account of the idea they held. So, we have to endure the hurt and to keep exhorting the society to develop itself into a nation in which people are not hurt for their beliefs or ideas. That is why we read the following in the Qur'an about the threat on the part of a certain people, and their prophet's reply: "The leaders, the arrogant party among his people, said: "O Shu'aib! we shall certainly drive thee out of our city - (thee) and those who believe with thee; or else ye (thou and they) shall have to return to our ways and religion." He said: "What! even though we do detest (them)? "We should indeed invent a lie against Allah, if we returned to your ways after Allah hath rescued us therefrom; nor could we by any manner of means return thereto unless it be as in the will and plan of Allah, Our Lord. Our Lord can reach out to the utmost recesses of things by His knowledge." (7:88-89) You have here the principle of building up a people, 'millah, in Qur'anic terms, as people perceive it, and we have a totally different principle of building up a 'millah' as the prophets perceive it. As you see in the above report, the prophets' conception is utterly different from the conception commonly held by others, for the prophets would not have compulsion in any way determining the acceptance of principles. That is why when I quoted above the verse about people being one nation in the past, I added that people are still the same one nation, meaning that their principle for the structure a nation is definitely not that of the prophets. People are still the same because they believe in changing others' beliefs and ideas by force; but God sent His prophets to protect people's beliefs and ideas. Anyone who adopts this way may call others to accept his ideas on terms of equality, never using compulsion; no one may take any other as an associate to God by surrendering to compulsion; we should help people to get over the worshipping of men, and to worship none but the Lord of men. The Muslim World is, with all its constituent nations, intrigued by physical force. Maybe only very lately they began to grope, quite tentatively and with little certainty, towards an alternative to violence. We need to build on that and exhort people to give up violence altogether in the dissemination of ideas, to denounce a politician who assumes his office through force. But how should this denunciation be shown? Not by assassinating a politician, nor by assaulting him physically: it is by disobeying him whenever he commands that which contradicts God's commands, by making it clear that we do not subscribe to a reversion to the jungle law. People work under the illusion that if they refuse to obey they will be put to death: this is an illusion because the bigger the number of people who accept this way of producing change, the more it is difficult for the oppressor to kill even one individual, let alone a whole society. This then is the smooth and merciful way of change, merciful for all parties. It is the least costly way and the most beneficial. It is unfortunate that we remain unaware of this way, nor do we adopt it or awaken people to its blessings. For those who know about this, they are guilty of a heinous sin: the sin of suppressing God's Signs (ref. to the Qur'an, 2:174). If we can drive into people's consciousness this way, children, women and the elderly can take part in using it; we do not just need 'able-bodied' athletic young men; we do not need heaps of money and weaponry. On the contrary, we reject all that, and we say: 'we insist on announcing this and calling to it; if you like to put us to death on that charge, go ahead.' This is what we were taught by Noah, the father of prophets, peace be upon him, as the Qur'an reports: "Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! He said to his people: 'O my people, if it be hard on your mind that I should stay with you and commemorate the Signs of God, yet I put my trust in God. Get ye then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me, and give me no respite;" (10:71) I must be clear and say: I am not annulling jihad; I am merely showing that the jihad of the Messenger, peace be upon him, is not the same as that of the 'kharijites, the schismatics.' Just after the era of the Upright Caliphs, from the era of the Umayyads, all Muslims adopted the way of the kharijites, the schismatics. This may be easily understood if we remember that a government that is created by force is not a lawful government, nor is it an upright government; it is a government of aberration and aggression. When you have a society properly constructed, any one who falls out of it, disrupting its system, then the way to deal with such people is as the Qur'an directs us: "If two parties among the believers fall into a quarrel, make ye peace between them; but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then fight ye against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of God; but if it complies, then make peace between them with justice, and be fair: for God loves those who are fair and just;" (49:9) This is when a person who rules on the basis of persuading people has to face a transgressor. But if a transgressor has to face another transgressor, then it is just the confrontation of two blind, misguided powers. When the situation is like that, the Messenger, peace be upon him, commands one to avoid siding with any of the disputing groups. A number of traditions of the Prophet direct a Muslim to distance himself from the chaotic clashes; we are commanded to break our sword; a Muslim is directed then to stay at home, and even if the aggressor enters one's home, he is to reply with the words of Adam's son [a ref. to the parable in the Qur'an, in which Adam's son says to his killing-intent brother: 'If thou stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee;' (5:28)]. The Prophet went so far as to urge the Muslim, if the glitter of the assailant's sword is too dazzling to bear, let him throw his shirt over his eyes. This must show you that I feel no contradiction, nor do I feel that I have annulled jihad; I feel quite in harmony with the traditions of the Messenger, peace be upon him, and indeed with the conduct of all the prophets. Of course, the Messenger, peace be upon him, was not contradicting himself when he said, side by side with the above traditions urging a Muslim to hold back his hand: "An arrow shot in the cause of God will intercede for three men to enter Paradise: its maker, its sharpener, and its thrower." Nor do I feel that this last tradition contradicts the Messenger's saying in another tradition: "Break your bow, blunt it, and snap its chord; strike with your sword at a rock until it is blunted;" and his saying in another tradition: "Let him who has a flock [at a time of political turmoil] take his flock to a far-away hill; let him who has some camels go and take care of his camels; let him who has a piece of land cultivate his land [to distance himself from the chaotic agitation;]" and when someone asked him what if one who has nothing of the above, he said: "Let him stay at his home, and do as Adam's Son did." Indeed, the problem of the kharijites, the schismatics, has not yet been analyzed: the kharijites are people who were intent on establishing a society on the basis of compulsion. It has been reported that Ali, may God give him grace, said: "Do not fight the kharijites after me." If he did say that, it is not in the sense that the kharijites' way was legitimated, but because all the groups would accept the their way. This is quite true, and until today the issue has not been clarified. In all the studies and analyses I have come across about the legality of war, the state and the nation, eastern or western, I have never seen anything clearer, more manifest and more practicable than the prophets' way, whose method I have tried to present above. I wish I could present it better; but I am sure that the theorizers and thinkers of the future, Muslim or non-Muslim, will be more able to clarify this and make it plain for everyone to understand, so that no one would be at a loss or desperate how to get out of the jungle law. God has indeed taught the prophets the best 'sunan, law'. I feel a great peace at my heart with this: I feel that with the prophets' way I can face the whole world: Their way was the way of perfect equality, the way of justice and piety, as the Lord says of the believers: "made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it;" (48:26). I take the chance here to call on the whole world, the world's philosophers, and all advocates of human rights to join arms to abolish the Veto Right: it is indeed the major mischief in the world; its arrogant spirit descends from the Romans; it is not a natural product of modernity. The Veto Right stunts the world's progress and it is a major hurdle in its way. It is an indication that the petty taghoots of the world are protected by the major taghoot. Is it conceivable that the advocates of human rights pass by that most enormous mischief, the worst violation of human rights, without campaigning for its removal? Are they not ashamed of claiming to be advocates of human rights and believers in democracy? The Veto Right, which is condoned by the whole world, is antithetical to democracy, utterly incompatible with democracy; it is against humankind itself, and it frustrates any attempt of progress in the world. Why is it, one wonders, that those big powers see the straw in the eye of others, and do not see the trunk in their own eyes? But why should we ourselves keep silent, accepting this political situation as if it were for granted? I do realize that the whole world is like this at present, but it does not have to continue to be so. No, Abdul-Jabbar, I am not rebellious against God or His Book; but when big fortunes in the Muslim World are spent on purchasing weapons, weapons whose producers know they do not threaten their interests, it is incumbent on me to speak. If this is what we take to be preparing to defeat our enemy; if this is what we take to be the right response to God's command: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power;" (8:60); then really we are mocking God's command, we show our ignorance of our enemy; and, above all, we are exposing our blindness to the way things go in this world. When the Americans were dismissed from Lebanon, it had no army and no government, and even its people were killing each other. But the Americans and the French were dismissed, and Israel withdrew from besieging Beirut. This was accomplished by this ethnically ravaged, disunited country. Somalia, too, was in a miserable condition, starving and naked, but it dismissed the Americans and the United Nations, without regular army, and with almost no weapons. Japan was also liberated without war, without even killing the Americans. This must show everyone that physical power no longer does any part but creating illusions. One can learn further by looking at Iraq, a country that is much greater than either Lebanon or Somalia, but it is being subjected to inspection from home to home, not for any practical purpose, but to be humiliated. This happens just because Iraq has a government, a regular army, and sophisticated or half-sophisticated, weapons. Is not this a ridiculous hoax? It further shows how there is a system which is obsolete, but some people cling to it. Maybe this is too abstruse for us to comprehend, so let us think of something that is within our comprehension. When the second Gulf war raged, the Arabs forgot about Israel, and turned to fight Iraq! Was that a problem of weapons? No, of course! It was a problem of ideas, concepts and relationships among the Arabs themselves. Can we understand this? How we keep complaining about Israel's destructive arsenal, but when Iraq does succeed in having its weapons, we insist that it is Iraq's weaponry which should be destroyed, as if it poses a greater danger for us than Israel! So, what dense darkness impedes our discerning all these issues? Do they not fall within the sphere of Islamic issues? If they are at the heart of Islamic issues, what prevents us from discussing them in earnest and in depth? There must be some preconceptions that prevent us from handling these issues; and what price that costs us, and how long precious time we waste! Well, when you ask me: 'Are you upholding the annulling of 'jihad', an established Islamic duty, even when all its conditions are met?' I can say, thank God that Muslims begin to recognize that there are conditions for carrying out jihad; though they may dispute about the specific conditions. So let it be noted here that when God says: Let there be no compulsion in religion, He is putting very strict restrictions on jihad; He leaves a very narrow occasion for jihad. The above verse is stating that a difference in religion is no reason for attacking the other; it is merely the fact that someone exercises compulsion in religion. The truth at present is that if one were to look for a people who meet the conditions for waging jihad against, he may find it is the Muslim World, where the conditions are met with more than anywhere else. More than any other part of the world do Muslims exercise compulsion; and more than any part of the world are Muslims ruled by taghoots , transgressors beyond all bounds, who rule by compulsion. But it seems that people are not anxious to see compulsion lifted, but may be to see more compulsion imposed. The real thing about supporting religion is not by having stronger muscles, and more destructive weapons: it is rather by having better-guided minds, and by helping people lift the persecution and compulsion. So when you raise in my face the Qur'anic verse: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies;" (8:60) with the implication that I am rebelling against God and His Scripture, do you not agree that if we do not work for having more horses to fight with, we are not disobeying God, as horses are things of the past? Now, from here we can go on to say that Muslims' clinging tightly to physical strength is blocking their understanding. When God says: Let there be no compulsion in religion, He is ruling out the use of force; He is neutralizing and excluding it in connection with winning people into the faith or driving some idea into their minds. Let me remind you of the fourth issue of your journal, Current Islamic Issues, for the year 1997, when you convened a seminar on the effect of time and place on the process of carrying out Islamic jurisprudence. In that issue, there were legal views put forth by distinguished scholars concerning, among other matters, the weight of a female witness's testimony, and the scholars put forth unconventional views in that connection: so should we say in that case that they were rebelling against God or His Book? And when scholars say that slavery, with all the legislations connected with it is abrogated, will they be contradicting God's commandments? The same may be said when scholars took up the legislation concerning a woman's conduct after her husband's death, and they had unconventional things to say in that connection. But it is in fact in the political domain in the Muslim World that we need to put most of our legislative effort; we need to earnestly fathom all affairs related to rule and government. Our move from the middle ages to the modern age is not an abandonment of the Qur'an: it is with the Qur'an in our hands that we must cross over to the present. Therefore, it is not irrelevant that Muhammad Arkoun mocks, as you point out in Question 11, those who cite the Qur'an in supporting a view, for, as he says, by doing so, they stir all the problems of the move from the mythical era to the scientific era. This thing has to do with something that is often mentioned in the Qur'an, that people may be in a state when they are unable to benefit from their vision and hearing, that men can come to a state when they are no better than animals. The Qur'an says about a certain group of people, "if thou callest them to guidance, even then, will they never accept guidance;" (18:57) it says: "Shall I tell you of those who lost most in respect of their deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works;" (18:103-104) Do you see how present-day Muslims have slogans like: "Democracy is a heresy;" on posters, while they accept to be ruled by taghoots, and crave to be themselves taghoots, to dictate to people what they should believe? Therefore one may say that what Arkoun has said is not without basis. We, Muslims, have not yet comprehended the changes that have come over the world concerning the taghoot, and the taghoot-worship. People have denounced the taghoot, as Iqbal says, but they have not yet believed in Allah. This means that inside the developed countries, people no longer tolerate to be ruled by a taghoot, they have rid themselves of that; but it remains for them to help others get rid of their taghoots. The West does not wish to see this take place; it rather dreads to see the others denounce their taghoots. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, that we are controlled by others does not happen without reason. Our comprehension has deteriorated to a pitiful degree, and it tempts other nations to deride us. Indeed, the others do not deal with us as rational people, but as mythical people: When they sell us weapons that are no longer of any use does that not prove that we still live in a mythical epoch? When one does not appreciate the value of persuading man, of teaching people what happened in the world, does it not show that such a person lives in a mythical epoch? God's law is realized in the predominance of justice; not merely justice at the personal level, but at the social level. We need to see how man loses the ability of understanding. In the preface to one of Arkoun's books, Islamic Thought: A Scientific Perspective, Hashim Saleh, the translator, presents a certain research concerning the orthodox conception and the dogmatic mind-set. This is a good example of modern research that focuses on the condition of man when he loses the ability to comprehend and analyze. We need to understand the orthodox and dogmatic mind, for we are dealing, in the Muslim World, with people who adhere to what they inherited from their ancestors and think nothing of reality and history. A dogmatic mind is that of a person who, when the objective circumstances call for a change in attitude, he fails to make that change. And that is exactly what happens to us in the Muslim World. This dogmatic or orthodox mental attitude is what Muhammad Iqbal meant by the condition of people in the pre-scientific epoch, and what Malek Bennabi meant when he said that a man who is ignorant of what the twentieth century added to the human mind will only arouse derision whenever he opens his mouth to utter a word. It is very true, then, that the Muslim World is afflicted with cultural malaise, in the full sense of the word, but that does not mean it is incurable. It is the mythical mentality that kills people in Algeria and Afghanistan. It is relevant to mention here that Sultan Abdul-Hamid once said to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani: "Why do not you go to Japan and work for the spread of Islam there?" And he retorted: "But what shall I reply if they say: 'Go back to your people, for they need Islam more than we do!'" Yes, the Japanese have adapted well to the modern world, while we still purchase the industrial world's outdated weapons; for even the atomic bomb is no longer of any use in modern life. It is worth our while to imagine how those who sell us weapons think of us; they actually think of us in the same way as a seller of blue beads thinks of the primitive tribesmen who buy his merchandise to use it as a talisman. Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union in the sixties of last century, once said to President Nixon of the United States of that period: "Your grandchildren will be communists!" And Nixon retorted: "If they do, it will not by force, but through persuasion!" That is true, because America is open to us, to our persuasion; the open minds are there. It is only our ignorance that makes us believe it is not possible to get to the Americans except by force. So again we have to find ways of liberating the Muslim's mind, for he is intellectually crippled. He attaches no importance to thought, and it is our task to find the ways of entering his consciousness, and helping him enter the world of ideas. We do not at present have people who can address the world in a logical and scientific way! Can you imagine that? I do not find the words to express how deplorable our conditions are. We in fact do not dare to announce our denunciation of the idols; we fear the idols. O how deep and dark a chasm have we fallen in! Even the Iranians, who have accomplished their miraculous revolution cannot export their popular and peaceful revolution outside their borders. No one could have been able to object to Iran's exporting its revolution in the peaceful way that the Iranians had won their victory over the Shah, facing the guns with flowers. The Iranians have not been able to advocate their way of winning victory, as if what they had accomplished were not unique, as if winning a victory in a peaceful way were a thing to be ashamed of! No, we must have the resolution and pride not to bow to the arrogant powers. When Iran is diffident about its great revolution, its foes will exploit that to charge Iran of supporting terrorism, or exporting terrorism. As things stand at the moment, neither does Iran speak out to bring its revolution to the attention of the world, nor do the others take the trouble to understand what the Iranians had achieved. It is a tragic thing how the Iranian revolution is shown to be: It is in reality a revolution of the people, a revolution of the intellect; it is also a revolution of the woman. Even the word revolution does not do justice to what happened, for the word revolution is a term that is foreign to us – we should really call it a revival of the prophets' action, a resurrection of the prophets' struggle. Let no one imagine that this unprecedented event will be forgotten. It is in fact a harbinger of the Islamic revolution. Our failing to understand the Iranian revolution, a revolution in the prophets' tradition, proves that our mind-set is still a mythical miracle-oriented one. Many people view the Iranian event as peculiar to Iran and the Shiites, as if the Shiites are not human beings, while the Qur'an teaches us: "Ye are but men, of the men He hath created;" (5:18) laws that apply to the Iranians apply to all mankind. How long will it take the Muslims to learn the meaning of the most honorable of martyrs (a reference to a tradition: The most nobly killed of martyrs … is that who stands for a tyrannical ruler to tell him the truth about his tyranny, and is put to death as a result)? How long will it take people to understand the Iranian event? They did not set fire to buildings and shops; they merely challenged the curfew, in perfect resolution. Who will teach people the struggle of the prophets, where one does not set fire, nor rob; where one is trusted not to hurt and is known to be safe. Is it not justifiable for Arkoun to say here that those who cite a verse from the Qur'an are really stirring all the problems of the mythical era? Is it not justifiable for him to say that when some will cite here the Qur'an's saying: "It is not fitting for an Apostle that he should have prisoners of war until he hath thoroughly subdued the land;" (8:67) to go ahead and kill prisoners of war? That which is stated in the above verse was once fair dealing, but is it still the right legislation? God's shari'ah, Divine law, has justice at its core, and whenever something nearer to justice comes into being, it has to supersede the previous legislation. Those who have enough learning and expertise must keep on the look out for what realizes more good for men to choose it as the right ruling; and even then, they must be alert to any facts that come to surface, and to see if that changes the ruling. Muslims will go on blundering until they understand the movement of history, that new things happen which were not there. I am sure that later generations will come up with better methods and techniques to solve problems like this without feeling that they are challenging God, His Book, and his Prophet, peace be upon him; instead of feeling that they are vitiating Allah's Scripture, they will feel that they are honoring it. They will feel great peace and they will feel they have broken the fetters that bind them. As for the question about terminating resistance against the Zionists, I do not say we should stop it, but I say if there arises a way more beneficial and effective, less costly and securing more good, then we have to choose that which realizes what is good to our ummah, the Muslim nation, in general. It will be a great thing if Arabs and Muslims join arms in doing good, without anyone of them losing anything, and with everyone winning rather than losing. Why cannot they boycott the enemy, and anyone who allies with the enemy? Why cannot we for instance manipulate the siege against Libya? Why cannot we say that Libya's position is just and fair: it is only requesting that the two convicts should have trial in a neutral country? Why cannot we say that the siege on Libya must be stopped; that we challenge that siege. Measures like these work most effectively, over the head of all the big powers. But we still work under great illusion, a charm is petrifying us. Why this unbelievable stupor? Why are we unable to sort out what is possible from what is impossible? Am I mad? Maybe. But I find these things within our capacity, and our nations will accept willingly and with pleasure the price of resolutions like this. America tried often to besiege Iran, but it failed, as it could not have enough states rallying to the boycott. So why should we work for building an atomic bomb, when we have the Tigris and the Euphrates? Why should we think we would starve if we decided to do without the American or Canadian or European food and medicine? It is great nonsense that we are made to swallow! My mind cannot accept the Muslims' attitude to their enemies, so let people call me what they like. I do agree with Arkoun when he says that we still live in the age of myth and wonders. Why do not we choose to solve a problem in peaceful ways when it can be solved like that? Why do not we put to use our human resources and our faith? Why do we insist on the only way that our enemy wants us to use? Why did Iraq invade and occupy Kuwait rather than strike and destroy the Israeli reactor? The Israelis did not hesitate to strike the Iraqi reactor. Had Iraq bombarded the Israeli reactor, it would have had all the Arabs behind it. What is the use of those missiles if we do not use them for our benefit? Where are those who can think? Where are the thinkers? If just one country would rise to the level of the time, and think on the basis of the science now available to everybody, it would attract all the Arabs and Muslims around it. This is not to be achieved with the ridiculous weapons that are being used, weapons that keep us in the mythical past. It is rather by saying to the neighbor: Here is my country if you wish to have it. A country which has risen to the scientific level of the world, and to the democratic consciousness of the world, cannot be ruled by a dictator. I feel what Iqbal felt when he said: Had my madness been potent enough I would have moved you! by which he meant that had his madness been strong enough it would have been contracted by the others, but it is not. And I feel that there must be something lacking in me that I do not move other Muslims. There are things that we are unable to think about, but which, as long as we fail to take into consideration, we shall be, as Garoudi says, offering our enemy, on a gold dish, what he wants us to do. A popular legend tells that a guardian had custody of an orphan's money; he managed it and submitted his account at intervals. One day, the orphan noticed an item in the accounts about shoes for the camels. So he inquired of the guardian: 'Do camels wear shoes, the same as horses?' And the guardian replied: 'Well, my son! If you are old enough to understand that camels do not wear shoes, then take custody of your money, for you are now a grown-up.' I recall this legend because the Muslim World has not become a grown-up. It still thinks that it needs horses to do jihad. We are still far behind the world in which we live! Why do not we think of the European Union? Its realization is an unprecedented event in the world. Europe did not unite by military invasions, for that kind of unification is something of the past. And now you find some Arabs begging to be members in that Union! The European Union did not happen as a result of mythical thinking; it happened with science and knowledge. But we do not understand that; we do not work for spreading science and knowledge. If we spent on spreading science and knowledge the amount that we spend on the purchase of weapons, we would be in a far better position. What an ironical situation we live! But who can really reveal the Islamic malaise? During the First World War, they used to call the Ottoman Empire 'the sick man of Europe'; and the war was waged for distributing the legacy of the sick man. So there you are! Do you sense how dense the darkness is in which we live? Do you see the demons and ghouls which torment us? Do you sense the charm we live in? To break out of this charm no war is needed, and no war can avail. All we need is more knowledge. But how can I transmit the knowledge about the modern world and about adapting to it? The Soviet Union did not fall because of the lack of weapons, but because of the lack of knowledge and understanding. Maybe it is in order to mention here an anecdote, to shed some light on the difficulty of raising people to the desired level. In the mid-fifties of last century, I had a friend, a shari'ah (Islamic law) judge from an Arab country. We exchanged some kind of intellectual dialogue. But he startled me one day with a sudden question, when we were alone in the mosque. "What do you think, brother, of those unbelievers who claim that the earth orbits the sun? Cannot they see with their eyes that it is the sun that goes round us?" It was stunning, but I managed to control myself, and I said: "Well, can you expect unbelievers to have better minds?" I said that because I imagined the wilderness I had to carry him through to grasp the idea of the present world. There is another anecdote, mentioned by Ibn Khaldoun (1332-1406 A.D.), in his Muqaddimah, about a minister and his little son. The minister had to spend several years in prison, and he had his little son with him. The son had seen nothing of the outside world. Of animals, he only saw rats. One day, the minister was telling his son about his experiences in the outside world, and he had to mention the horse. The son naturally asked what a horse was like. So the minister started describing the horse: its size, head, ears, body, tail, etc. After listening to his father's long representation of the horse, the boy said, in all innocence: "Is it not like a rat, dad?" Every time the father described the horse, the child's response was the same: "Is it not like a rat, dad?" And he was right, for he had never seen a horse. And we often have to give up in despair and to respond to the ignorant inquirer: Yes, it is like a rat, son. I may say now that Israel is a myth, a scarecrow, placed there to scare Arabs and Muslims, as long as they live in their myth and the age of wonders. Indeed, an idol has no strength, except in so far as people believe in it. A mythical faith is so tightly built, that it is the most difficult thing to pull apart or penetrate. If it were not so, if our way of understanding were not mythical, how can we explain that in the second Gulf war we forgot Israel and totally ignored it, and felt that the problems among the Arabs were much more urgent than the Israeli ghost? Indeed, the problems that keep Arabs and Muslims disunited are mythical: every party believes in physical strength, and that blocks our way to any understanding; it makes us incapable of seeing or hearing. When people are in that state, then to invade Kuwait is quite logical to their mind. Wherever we turn, we have to face the same reality: We need to understand how Arabs and Muslims can go on clinging to their mythical way of understanding. What Arkoun said about our clinging to myths is not different from Iqbal's saying that Islam chronologically belonged to the pre-scientific era, but it laid the basis for the scientific era. But we Muslims have not entered the world to which we chronologically belong. We have no sense of facts and figures, but our imagination is full of ghosts and myths. When will someone come and diagnose our disease? Who can discover the germ which makes of us what we are? You are not the first to ask me about violence. Your question about violence is the longest, and so my answer is the longest one. Some people used to say: How can you believe in non-violence when you know that even when the Islamists in Algeria succeeded by a democratic vote, democracy was aborted there to prevent them from ruling; What else can they do but to resort to violence? And I reply: Why do not you remember Iran? The revolution did not succeed there with ballot boxes, but they succeeded by facing the soldiers with flowers. Can someone come up with a comparison and contrast between what happened in Algeria and what happened in Iran? Is the utmost we can come up with is to say that Iran's event may not be explained according to laws or science, that it was just a miracle? And you see what violence is doing to Algeria at present? While one saw what flowers did to the soldiers, not just to show them love, but to show that non-violence was mightier than violence. The Iranians did not go out to boast about what they had accomplished, but that is not enough. Jesus Christ once said: "Who of you would kindle a light and then place it under a cover? No, you should place it on high, so that all people may see it." The Iranians should have showed their non-violent way, like a light, on a high place, so that everyone might see it. But they put it under a cover. We need to look for it in its dark niche, and to bring it out into light so that the ordinary person might perceive it. I have been quite put out that this creative, futuristic, scientific achievement should be ignored like that! Indeed, it should come out with all the necessary pictures and comments; it should be broadcast with all the multimedia it merits: no man or woman should be left ignorant of that event. Like all the great deeds of the Muslim World, the Iranian revolution remains neglected, since it is the acts of physical power that fascinate the Muslim World. Malek Bennabi meant this when he said: "The morbid adoration in the Muslim World for physical force has hindered its appreciation of knowledge and the power of ideas, that ideas are the real resource of people." He pointed out what happened to Germany, which lost all it had, as far as material things are concerned, but it had all its treasure of ideas, and so in no time it was able to reconstruct its material world. The Muslim World, on the other hand, has a barren intellect, and so it lives in the material stage, and has not yet entered the intellectual era. So, when Mr. al-Rifa'ee asks me: Is Jawdat Sa'eed upholding the annulling of 'jihad', an established Islamic duty, even when all its conditions are met? I reply by reversing this question and I ask him: Will Mr. al-Rifa'ee start fighting if all things could be solved without fighting? What is the meaning of uprightness in the Qur'an? What is the meaning of democracy? Is it not that all parties agree not to solve political problems by violence? Democracy will not enter a country whose population believe in or legitimate the assuming of authority through violence. As I said above belief that is realized through compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief that is realized through compulsion disbelief. It is useful to note that the world of big powers, or, the evil powers according to Khomeini, cannot solve their problems through violence: this is a vital fact of the modern world, but the Muslim World seems not to understand that. The other fact is that nor can the world of the weaklings solve their problems with violence. For evidence one can just refer to the two Gulf wars: no benefits accrued through them, none whatsoever, for any of the disputing parties. It is only the big powers that reaped the gains of the war, in a most dishonest way. Can we learn the lesson then, and never carry out such belligerence, calling it jihad, and claiming that all the conditions for jihad have been met? I may go from here to claim that though America cannot be conquered by war, it can be conquered by ideas. In the course of a discussion, someone asked about America, and I said: "America is saying: 'Convince me and possess me!'" But how can we convince America? Should we say: "See our leaders! Why not adopt their ways?" Anyone can see how Islam is reaching more and more people, despite all our unfavorable conditions; so why go out and discourage people from the way of Allah? Malek Bennabi, may his soul rest in peace, used to say: Water irrigates not by running uphill, but by running downhill. So if we occupy a petty place in the world, with no ideas, with no solutions for the world's problems; if it is the other world which gives the solutions, resorting to science, and not to myths and miracles, why should people listen to us?" As the situation stands at the moment, it is he who has better thought that can sway the world; the miracle that we seek is sound thought – not muscles and not missiles. It is man who will defeat the idols. Let the kharijites be jubilant in their graves, seeing that the whole Muslim World has converted to their way; that the 'conditions for lawful jihad' of the other Muslims are no better than those of the kharijites': Is it not enough that one believes that he is in the right and the other is in the wrong to fight him? Is it not on this basis that Ali bin Abu Taleb was assassinated? But it appears that we are still in need of more wars, the spilling of more blood and more pain to believe! It is history that teaches people the lesson: but some are so dull that they will not learn until the catastrophe hits them; while the brighter ones will learn through observing what befell the others; and most people are at present of the first category. If we go by the Qur'an, we find so many peoples perishing by not learning the lessons of history; on the other hand, it is just the people of Jonah that are described as having learned without having to undergo the same catastrophe that befell the others. Eventually, however, the accumulation of painful events will drive the lesson home: events like the two Gulf wars should have been enough, and I hope no third war should be necessary to learn. It is so because when the past history does not teach people, then its lessons go unheeded, and more disasters prove to be necessary. About that we have in the Qur'an: "Such is the chastisement of thy Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement." (11:102) "They will not believe in it until they see the grievous penalty;" (26:201) Let me own here that the discourse of people like me is not at present compelling enough; we do not so far have the words equal to the topic; therefore, I should not blame those who do not respond; I should blame myself first of all. But many Muslims' minds are by now primed for the vital facts; they have matured through the painful experiences we have undergone. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 117 44 2009-08-23T10:19:10Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 5: Jawdat Sa'eed is a great promoter of the repudiation of violence. He goes so far as to call for the discarding of the sword and all weaponry; he likens the purchase of arms to the purchase of idols. His doctrine of the 'Way of Adam's Son' is inseparable from Jawdat Sa'eed's name, since that way was put forth in the title of his first book. So the question would naturally arise: Is Jawdat Sa'eed upholding the annulment of 'jihad', an established Islamic obligation, even when all its conditions are met? Is he calling for disobeying Allah's command, "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power," (the Qur'an, 8:60)? Is it right in his point of view that we be passive spectators while the Zionist enemy is amassing its huge arsenal? Is he calling for terminating the resistance movements in the face of destructive powers?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 5: You are trying to provoke me, Abdul-Jabbar, in this longest of your questions. But you are right to require that I should make things most evident, to say all that is to say concerning the use of violence. When I published my book, The Way of Adam's Better Son, more than thirty years ago, I was concerned with bringing out my idea, just to announce it. I did not hope then to convince people of the presented ideas; and that is why I said in the preface that the book was for announcement and not for persuasion. Many people wrote to me that I had to try to persuade people, and to write with that intention, not just to declare my ideas. All that shows you how difficult that topic is. Many doubts were raised concerning it. But I assure you that once we understand the topic, we will wonder how it was unclear to us. It is something like when people for many centuries could not understand that it is not the sun that goes round us, but it is we who go round the sun. This shows me in what darkness we still live! We need to explore the prevalent concepts which impede the way to understanding, what blocks people's hearing and vision. This is something that is given great attention in the Qur'an, when it says: "Deaf, dumb, and blind, they will not return to the path;" (2:18) and when it says: "Has he made the gods all into one God? Truly this is a wonderful thing! … We never heard the like of this among the people of these latter days;" (38:5-7) That the Qur'an is in our hands avails us nothing. Do not you see how the Jews and the Christians have the Bible, but it avails them nothing? And science and all fields of knowledge are there, but they do not help us. The tragic condition of the Muslim World is glaringly obvious to any observer, and that should be a great motive for people to inquire and look for the facts: What makes Muslims the greatest losers in the whole world? That was my point of departure, when I started my work; and I had confidence in persuading the human mind, not in subduing it. This brings me to your question. Unless we admit that man will give on the basis of persuasion more than he will give on the basis of intimidation and compulsion, then we have not started to understand man or even God. So let us look at three points. The First Thing is Allah: We think that we know about Allah, but we really do not; just as the verses of the Qur'an describe this situation: "But this thought of yours which ye did entertain concerning your Lord, hath brought you to destruction, and now have ye become of those utterly lost!" (41:23) This must be a reminder to us that our understanding of God does not have to be right. I here remember Ali Shari'ati, a giant of a thinker, a sociologist who specialized in comparative religions: When I read his book Man and Islam I felt that he was like a first-class athlete moving among crippled people; that is because he has eyes that can see, ears that can hear, and a mind that functions most effectively. He can strike fire in the hearts of those who read well, and he is a man of great faith. Ali Shari'ati says: "Every society makes up its god to match its light;" which is very true, for if we want to know God, we have no way of knowing Him except through His creation. The Second Thing to know is God's creation, this universe. We need to know it; and when we learn the facts of the universe, we shall find that God created it to work on the basis of firm sunan, laws; sunan that are firm but that leave room for development; I mean that God creates new things, that God as the Qur'an says: "adds to creation as He pleases;" (35:1). The Third Thing to know is man, and we have to deal with man as a separate entity, as different from other living beings, because of the nervous system; it is through the nervous system that man is enabled to reflect and to discover the laws. All three need to be taken together. For when you focus on the universe, you find all it constituents point to Allah, and we know God through the universe. It is by observing the universe that we discover how the camels, the mountains, and societies were created. It is because the universe is based on laws that man can control it: by understanding the ways of the world man can control it. That is about discovering the laws and acting on them. When we come to how men deal with men, we find that they hasten to employ muscles rather than understanding. When God says in the Qur'an: "Mankind was one single nation, and God sent messengers with glad tidings and warnings;" (2:213) I find that mankind was one nation and is still so. They think alike: they everywhere still resort to exercising physical strength to subjugate the others. It was so in the past, and it is still so at present. What Pharaoh said, 'I am your lord, most high;' is still used most widely; and the Pharaoh of our time, America, still says what the ancient Pharaoh used to say. As long as might is right then it is the jungle law that is predominant, and mankind is still one nation, that is, they are like-minded. Men worshipped power, and still worship power, and worship the one who has the power. This is then the source of discord in the life of man: since man has a nervous system that is capable of understanding, and of controlling his life through understanding, then he should not be dominated by another human being like him. This is my life mission that I raised long ago, and that I am still working on. Only last year I published a book entitled Be Like Adam's Son; and I hope to publish another entitled Break Your Bow. When I say that purchasing weapons is not unlike the purchasing of idols, I say that to shock the Muslim, to really shock the Muslim and the non-Muslim. I am really saying: Mankind! You can really communicate in harmony, and you cannot go on living on the basis of the jungle law. You need to lay concepts and principles and laws for a common harmonious life. Man will not be man until and unless he accepts the way of Adam's better son. When can we understand this, and help Muslims and all human beings to understand this? We need here to refer to Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, for without him we shall not be able to understand this issue, especially in our present conditions. I say the Prophet, peace be upon him, because he represents all prophets, and he it is that testifies to their messages, as the Qur'an says: "Truly We have sent thee as a witness, a bearer of glad tidings, and a warner, and as one who invites to God's grace by his leave, and as a lamp spreading light;" (33:45-56) All the prophets' religion is one, the core being belief in One God, not taking associates with God. As for the rituals, they vary from one prophet's time to another. As for dealing among people, it develops with time, but must never violate the cardinal principle of justice. Indeed the belief in One God is manifested in justice, for injustice is the worst form of polytheism, and polytheism is the worst injustice. To establish justice among people is to establish monotheism, the common terms between different parties, "that we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than God;" (3:64) What we have in the above verse is the principle of fairness, that I grant you the same right as I expect you to grant me; that I forbid you what I forbid myself. No principle can be superior to that, when you grant the other the same as you allow yourself. One merit of this principle is that you do not have to wait for the other to accept the principle. One adopts the principle, and does not wait for the other's consent. How can one be a Muslim if he does not accept the way of Adam's son? The Messenger, peace be upon him, adhered to this way, when he called people to the faith, compelling no one and dictating no one to accept the faith. Those who accepted the faith were subjected to torture by the Quraysh tribe; the unbelievers tried all they could to compel the believers to revert to disbelief, and when the Messenger, peace be upon him, saw one of the tortured families, he said: "Have patience, Abu Yaser's family; let our meeting place be in Paradise;" not calling them to rise against their tormenters; he only urged them to adhere to the faith, not to give in to their adversaries. The Qur'an itself taught believers: "hold back your hands from fight but establish regular prayers;" (4:77). In the very first sura (chapter) revealed to the Prophet, peace be upon him, the Qur'an taught the believers to adhere to their worship and to disobey the trespasser who insisted on imposing his opinion with force: "Seest thou one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray? … heed him not; but bow down in adoration;" (96:9-19). In another location we recite: "And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in God, Exalted in power;" (85:8). The Prophet, peace be upon him, did not defend himself; and in this we see how working for Islam, from the first moment, started with patience and enduring injury. We have ample evidence in the Qur'an about that. In one location we have in general terms how the prophets dealt with injury: " Has not the story reached you, (O people!), of those who (went) before you? - of the people of Noah, and 'Ad, and Thamud? - And of those who (came) after them? None knows them but Allah. To them came apostles with Clear (Signs); but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said: "We do deny (the mission) on which ye have been sent, and we are really in suspicious (disquieting) doubt as to that to which ye invite us." Their apostles said: "Is there a doubt about Allah, The Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He Who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed!" They said: "Ah! ye are no more than human, like ourselves! Ye wish to turn us away from the (gods) our fathers used to worship: then bring us some clear authority." Their apostles said to them: "True, we are human like yourselves, but Allah doth grant His grace to such of his servants as He pleases. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as Allah permits. And on Allah let all men of faith put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on Allah. Indeed He hath guided us to the Ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust in Allah." And the Unbelievers said to their apostles: "Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or ye shall return to our religion." But their Lord inspired (this Message) to them: "Verily We shall cause the wrong-doers to perish! "And verily We shall cause you to abide in the land, and succeed them. This for such as fear the Time when they shall stand before My tribunal,- such as fear the punishment denounced." (14:9-14) What we have above is a debate not of one particular prophet, but a generic one; and it represents the various peoples. Of course, in other locations the Qur'an handles single situations, but it is the same theme and the same purport of debate: on the prophets' side, it is a call to the way of truth; on the side of the peoples, it is inflicting hurt, banishing, and using compulsion in the hope of bringing a convert back into the people's dogma. It is evidently worth our while to analyze this scenario, to see how the prophets dealt with this situation. They indeed chose to deal with their peoples on an equal footing, on common terms that apply to both parties in an equal measure. The principle of the prophets was: We bring forth our call, and you bring forth your call; neither party will resort to coercion or hurt; no one will be turned out of their home. So let him believe who chooses, and let him disbelieve who chooses: "Let there be no compulsion in religion;" (2:256) "Let him who will, believe, and let him who will, reject the faith;" (18:29). There is no room for compulsion in religion, in opinion or in beliefs. So let there be competition in persuasion, and let there be no resorting to violence or compulsion; but if the opposing party resorts to such ways, we ourselves must not do the same; "We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us;" (14:12) until people are convinced of the views of either party. In this way, the prophets laid down a general law for dealing with others in the sphere of ideas: that violence should be neutralized; that there should be no compulsion, in religion, opinions, or in politics; that both parties (or we, if they do not agree to do the same) use only persuasion. Only wisdom should be used and a beautiful tone and language; debate and dispute in the best and most gracious way; until change takes place in society. That is the way adopted by Muhammad, peace be upon him, the model for the upright people who will not initiate aggression, and will never resort to compulsion. Even after the others inflict hurt and use compulsive ways, we may not retaliate with hurt or compulsion, in our endeavor to establish a community that embraces in general the upright way (of no compulsion). After the society has converted to the upright condition, then it may protect people's thoughts and beliefs from aggression: and that right of protecting people's thoughts and beliefs is to be applied to believers in the same way as it is to be applied to unbelievers. The others have the same right as believers do in calling people to their ideas, in a peaceful way, disputing in a gracious way. Not many Muslims at present tolerate to grant others the right to call to their ideas, in an equal degree as they (Muslims) believe they are privileged to have. The reason is that they do not have enough confidence in ideas, or in the religion they hold. But no! They have really to grant others the same right they wish to have in calling to what they believe, banning to others only what they ban to themselves. Indeed, things will be like this by and by, despite anyone's resistance. What will settle down is the law of "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth;" (the Qur'an, 13:17). In the same way, if society begins to decline and decay, a Muslim may not resort to any way other than addressing people and directing them to what is right. Should the community accept his call, and after people are converted to it, then that society has the right to protect everybody's right to talk and remonstrate. Those who refuse and insist on employing force, rather than debating in peace, then they are reverting to the law of the jungle; in this case the prophets, one and all, adopted the same attitude, that of Adam's better son; "We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us;" (14:12). In this way the prophets set the principle of genuine democracy. The mistake of modern democracies is that they permit attacking and killing a tyrant or oppressor. This is not the right way; the right way is rather to work peacefully until the society is converted without compulsion. Muslims at present do not accept the principles of modern democracies, and do not accept human rights. The human rights as put forth by the prophets are predominantly not 'rights' but 'duties'. It is our duty to bring into being the right society and to protect it, all through debate and persuasion, never through compulsion. Those who use compulsion are virtually calling others to use compulsion; in this case, both the victor and the defeated will be applying the jungle law; both, as the prophets teach us, merit to be punished in hell: it is so because both parties are holding up force as a deity. This is a stumbling block for so many people, and it very often hampers understanding. The prophets did not resort to self defense when the representative of society hurt them on account of the idea they held. So, we have to endure the hurt and to keep exhorting the society to develop itself into a nation in which people are not hurt for their beliefs or ideas. That is why we read the following in the Qur'an about the threat on the part of a certain people, and their prophet's reply: "The leaders, the arrogant party among his people, said: "O Shu'aib! we shall certainly drive thee out of our city - (thee) and those who believe with thee; or else ye (thou and they) shall have to return to our ways and religion." He said: "What! even though we do detest (them)? "We should indeed invent a lie against Allah, if we returned to your ways after Allah hath rescued us therefrom; nor could we by any manner of means return thereto unless it be as in the will and plan of Allah, Our Lord. Our Lord can reach out to the utmost recesses of things by His knowledge." (7:88-89) You have here the principle of building up a people, 'millah, in Qur'anic terms, as people perceive it, and we have a totally different principle of building up a 'millah' as the prophets perceive it. As you see in the above report, the prophets' conception is utterly different from the conception commonly held by others, for the prophets would not have compulsion in any way determining the acceptance of principles. That is why when I quoted above the verse about people being one nation in the past, I added that people are still the same one nation, meaning that their principle for the structure a nation is definitely not that of the prophets. People are still the same because they believe in changing others' beliefs and ideas by force; but God sent His prophets to protect people's beliefs and ideas. Anyone who adopts this way may call others to accept his ideas on terms of equality, never using compulsion; no one may take any other as an associate to God by surrendering to compulsion; we should help people to get over the worshipping of men, and to worship none but the Lord of men. The Muslim World is, with all its constituent nations, intrigued by physical force. Maybe only very lately they began to grope, quite tentatively and with little certainty, towards an alternative to violence. We need to build on that and exhort people to give up violence altogether in the dissemination of ideas, to denounce a politician who assumes his office through force. But how should this denunciation be shown? Not by assassinating a politician, nor by assaulting him physically: it is by disobeying him whenever he commands that which contradicts God's commands, by making it clear that we do not subscribe to a reversion to the jungle law. People work under the illusion that if they refuse to obey they will be put to death: this is an illusion because the bigger the number of people who accept this way of producing change, the more it is difficult for the oppressor to kill even one individual, let alone a whole society. This then is the smooth and merciful way of change, merciful for all parties. It is the least costly way and the most beneficial. It is unfortunate that we remain unaware of this way, nor do we adopt it or awaken people to its blessings. For those who know about this, they are guilty of a heinous sin: the sin of suppressing God's Signs (ref. to the Qur'an, 2:174). If we can drive into people's consciousness this way, children, women and the elderly can take part in using it; we do not just need 'able-bodied' athletic young men; we do not need heaps of money and weaponry. On the contrary, we reject all that, and we say: 'we insist on announcing this and calling to it; if you like to put us to death on that charge, go ahead.' This is what we were taught by Noah, the father of prophets, peace be upon him, as the Qur'an reports: "Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! He said to his people: 'O my people, if it be hard on your mind that I should stay with you and commemorate the Signs of God, yet I put my trust in God. Get ye then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me, and give me no respite;" (10:71) I must be clear and say: I am not annulling jihad; I am merely showing that the jihad of the Messenger, peace be upon him, is not the same as that of the 'kharijites, the schismatics.' Just after the era of the Upright Caliphs, from the era of the Umayyads, all Muslims adopted the way of the kharijites, the schismatics. This may be easily understood if we remember that a government that is created by force is not a lawful government, nor is it an upright government; it is a government of aberration and aggression. When you have a society properly constructed, any one who falls out of it, disrupting its system, then the way to deal with such people is as the Qur'an directs us: "If two parties among the believers fall into a quarrel, make ye peace between them; but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then fight ye against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of God; but if it complies, then make peace between them with justice, and be fair: for God loves those who are fair and just;" (49:9) This is when a person who rules on the basis of persuading people has to face a transgressor. But if a transgressor has to face another transgressor, then it is just the confrontation of two blind, misguided powers. When the situation is like that, the Messenger, peace be upon him, commands one to avoid siding with any of the disputing groups. A number of traditions of the Prophet direct a Muslim to distance himself from the chaotic clashes; we are commanded to break our sword; a Muslim is directed then to stay at home, and even if the aggressor enters one's home, he is to reply with the words of Adam's son [a ref. to the parable in the Qur'an, in which Adam's son says to his killing-intent brother: 'If thou stretch thy hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against thee to slay thee;' (5:28)]. The Prophet went so far as to urge the Muslim, if the glitter of the assailant's sword is too dazzling to bear, let him throw his shirt over his eyes. This must show you that I feel no contradiction, nor do I feel that I have annulled jihad; I feel quite in harmony with the traditions of the Messenger, peace be upon him, and indeed with the conduct of all the prophets. Of course, the Messenger, peace be upon him, was not contradicting himself when he said, side by side with the above traditions urging a Muslim to hold back his hand: "An arrow shot in the cause of God will intercede for three men to enter Paradise: its maker, its sharpener, and its thrower." Nor do I feel that this last tradition contradicts the Messenger's saying in another tradition: "Break your bow, blunt it, and snap its chord; strike with your sword at a rock until it is blunted;" and his saying in another tradition: "Let him who has a flock [at a time of political turmoil] take his flock to a far-away hill; let him who has some camels go and take care of his camels; let him who has a piece of land cultivate his land [to distance himself from the chaotic agitation;]" and when someone asked him what if one who has nothing of the above, he said: "Let him stay at his home, and do as Adam's Son did." Indeed, the problem of the kharijites, the schismatics, has not yet been analyzed: the kharijites are people who were intent on establishing a society on the basis of compulsion. It has been reported that Ali, may God give him grace, said: "Do not fight the kharijites after me." If he did say that, it is not in the sense that the kharijites' way was legitimated, but because all the groups would accept the their way. This is quite true, and until today the issue has not been clarified. In all the studies and analyses I have come across about the legality of war, the state and the nation, eastern or western, I have never seen anything clearer, more manifest and more practicable than the prophets' way, whose method I have tried to present above. I wish I could present it better; but I am sure that the theorizers and thinkers of the future, Muslim or non-Muslim, will be more able to clarify this and make it plain for everyone to understand, so that no one would be at a loss or desperate how to get out of the jungle law. God has indeed taught the prophets the best 'sunan, law'. I feel a great peace at my heart with this: I feel that with the prophets' way I can face the whole world: Their way was the way of perfect equality, the way of justice and piety, as the Lord says of the believers: "made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it;" (48:26). I take the chance here to call on the whole world, the world's philosophers, and all advocates of human rights to join arms to abolish the Veto Right: it is indeed the major mischief in the world; its arrogant spirit descends from the Romans; it is not a natural product of modernity. The Veto Right stunts the world's progress and it is a major hurdle in its way. It is an indication that the petty taghoots of the world are protected by the major taghoot. Is it conceivable that the advocates of human rights pass by that most enormous mischief, the worst violation of human rights, without campaigning for its removal? Are they not ashamed of claiming to be advocates of human rights and believers in democracy? The Veto Right, which is condoned by the whole world, is antithetical to democracy, utterly incompatible with democracy; it is against humankind itself, and it frustrates any attempt of progress in the world. Why is it, one wonders, that those big powers see the straw in the eye of others, and do not see the trunk in their own eyes? But why should we ourselves keep silent, accepting this political situation as if it were for granted? I do realize that the whole world is like this at present, but it does not have to continue to be so. No, Abdul-Jabbar, I am not rebellious against God or His Book; but when big fortunes in the Muslim World are spent on purchasing weapons, weapons whose producers know they do not threaten their interests, it is incumbent on me to speak. If this is what we take to be preparing to defeat our enemy; if this is what we take to be the right response to God's command: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power;" (8:60); then really we are mocking God's command, we show our ignorance of our enemy; and, above all, we are exposing our blindness to the way things go in this world. When the Americans were dismissed from Lebanon, it had no army and no government, and even its people were killing each other. But the Americans and the French were dismissed, and Israel withdrew from besieging Beirut. This was accomplished by this ethnically ravaged, disunited country. Somalia, too, was in a miserable condition, starving and naked, but it dismissed the Americans and the United Nations, without regular army, and with almost no weapons. Japan was also liberated without war, without even killing the Americans. This must show everyone that physical power no longer does any part but creating illusions. One can learn further by looking at Iraq, a country that is much greater than either Lebanon or Somalia, but it is being subjected to inspection from home to home, not for any practical purpose, but to be humiliated. This happens just because Iraq has a government, a regular army, and sophisticated or half-sophisticated, weapons. Is not this a ridiculous hoax? It further shows how there is a system which is obsolete, but some people cling to it. Maybe this is too abstruse for us to comprehend, so let us think of something that is within our comprehension. When the second Gulf war raged, the Arabs forgot about Israel, and turned to fight Iraq! Was that a problem of weapons? No, of course! It was a problem of ideas, concepts and relationships among the Arabs themselves. Can we understand this? How we keep complaining about Israel's destructive arsenal, but when Iraq does succeed in having its weapons, we insist that it is Iraq's weaponry which should be destroyed, as if it poses a greater danger for us than Israel! So, what dense darkness impedes our discerning all these issues? Do they not fall within the sphere of Islamic issues? If they are at the heart of Islamic issues, what prevents us from discussing them in earnest and in depth? There must be some preconceptions that prevent us from handling these issues; and what price that costs us, and how long precious time we waste! Well, when you ask me: 'Are you upholding the annulling of 'jihad', an established Islamic duty, even when all its conditions are met?' I can say, thank God that Muslims begin to recognize that there are conditions for carrying out jihad; though they may dispute about the specific conditions. So let it be noted here that when God says: Let there be no compulsion in religion, He is putting very strict restrictions on jihad; He leaves a very narrow occasion for jihad. The above verse is stating that a difference in religion is no reason for attacking the other; it is merely the fact that someone exercises compulsion in religion. The truth at present is that if one were to look for a people who meet the conditions for waging jihad against, he may find it is the Muslim World, where the conditions are met with more than anywhere else. More than any other part of the world do Muslims exercise compulsion; and more than any part of the world are Muslims ruled by taghoots , transgressors beyond all bounds, who rule by compulsion. But it seems that people are not anxious to see compulsion lifted, but may be to see more compulsion imposed. The real thing about supporting religion is not by having stronger muscles, and more destructive weapons: it is rather by having better-guided minds, and by helping people lift the persecution and compulsion. So when you raise in my face the Qur'anic verse: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies;" (8:60) with the implication that I am rebelling against God and His Scripture, do you not agree that if we do not work for having more horses to fight with, we are not disobeying God, as horses are things of the past? Now, from here we can go on to say that Muslims' clinging tightly to physical strength is blocking their understanding. When God says: Let there be no compulsion in religion, He is ruling out the use of force; He is neutralizing and excluding it in connection with winning people into the faith or driving some idea into their minds. Let me remind you of the fourth issue of your journal, Current Islamic Issues, for the year 1997, when you convened a seminar on the effect of time and place on the process of carrying out Islamic jurisprudence. In that issue, there were legal views put forth by distinguished scholars concerning, among other matters, the weight of a female witness's testimony, and the scholars put forth unconventional views in that connection: so should we say in that case that they were rebelling against God or His Book? And when scholars say that slavery, with all the legislations connected with it is abrogated, will they be contradicting God's commandments? The same may be said when scholars took up the legislation concerning a woman's conduct after her husband's death, and they had unconventional things to say in that connection. But it is in fact in the political domain in the Muslim World that we need to put most of our legislative effort; we need to earnestly fathom all affairs related to rule and government. Our move from the middle ages to the modern age is not an abandonment of the Qur'an: it is with the Qur'an in our hands that we must cross over to the present. Therefore, it is not irrelevant that Muhammad Arkoun mocks, as you point out in Question 11, those who cite the Qur'an in supporting a view, for, as he says, by doing so, they stir all the problems of the move from the mythical era to the scientific era. This thing has to do with something that is often mentioned in the Qur'an, that people may be in a state when they are unable to benefit from their vision and hearing, that men can come to a state when they are no better than animals. The Qur'an says about a certain group of people, "if thou callest them to guidance, even then, will they never accept guidance;" (18:57) it says: "Shall I tell you of those who lost most in respect of their deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works;" (18:103-104) Do you see how present-day Muslims have slogans like: "Democracy is a heresy;" on posters, while they accept to be ruled by taghoots, and crave to be themselves taghoots, to dictate to people what they should believe? Therefore one may say that what Arkoun has said is not without basis. We, Muslims, have not yet comprehended the changes that have come over the world concerning the taghoot, and the taghoot-worship. People have denounced the taghoot, as Iqbal says, but they have not yet believed in Allah. This means that inside the developed countries, people no longer tolerate to be ruled by a taghoot, they have rid themselves of that; but it remains for them to help others get rid of their taghoots. The West does not wish to see this take place; it rather dreads to see the others denounce their taghoots. Well, Abdul-Jabbar, that we are controlled by others does not happen without reason. Our comprehension has deteriorated to a pitiful degree, and it tempts other nations to deride us. Indeed, the others do not deal with us as rational people, but as mythical people: When they sell us weapons that are no longer of any use does that not prove that we still live in a mythical epoch? When one does not appreciate the value of persuading man, of teaching people what happened in the world, does it not show that such a person lives in a mythical epoch? God's law is realized in the predominance of justice; not merely justice at the personal level, but at the social level. We need to see how man loses the ability of understanding. In the preface to one of Arkoun's books, Islamic Thought: A Scientific Perspective, Hashim Saleh, the translator, presents a certain research concerning the orthodox conception and the dogmatic mind-set. This is a good example of modern research that focuses on the condition of man when he loses the ability to comprehend and analyze. We need to understand the orthodox and dogmatic mind, for we are dealing, in the Muslim World, with people who adhere to what they inherited from their ancestors and think nothing of reality and history. A dogmatic mind is that of a person who, when the objective circumstances call for a change in attitude, he fails to make that change. And that is exactly what happens to us in the Muslim World. This dogmatic or orthodox mental attitude is what Muhammad Iqbal meant by the condition of people in the pre-scientific epoch, and what Malek Bennabi meant when he said that a man who is ignorant of what the twentieth century added to the human mind will only arouse derision whenever he opens his mouth to utter a word. It is very true, then, that the Muslim World is afflicted with cultural malaise, in the full sense of the word, but that does not mean it is incurable. It is the mythical mentality that kills people in Algeria and Afghanistan. It is relevant to mention here that Sultan Abdul-Hamid once said to Jamal al-Din al-Afghani: "Why do not you go to Japan and work for the spread of Islam there?" And he retorted: "But what shall I reply if they say: 'Go back to your people, for they need Islam more than we do!'" Yes, the Japanese have adapted well to the modern world, while we still purchase the industrial world's outdated weapons; for even the atomic bomb is no longer of any use in modern life. It is worth our while to imagine how those who sell us weapons think of us; they actually think of us in the same way as a seller of blue beads thinks of the primitive tribesmen who buy his merchandise to use it as a talisman. Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union in the sixties of last century, once said to President Nixon of the United States of that period: "Your grandchildren will be communists!" And Nixon retorted: "If they do, it will not by force, but through persuasion!" That is true, because America is open to us, to our persuasion; the open minds are there. It is only our ignorance that makes us believe it is not possible to get to the Americans except by force. So again we have to find ways of liberating the Muslim's mind, for he is intellectually crippled. He attaches no importance to thought, and it is our task to find the ways of entering his consciousness, and helping him enter the world of ideas. We do not at present have people who can address the world in a logical and scientific way! Can you imagine that? I do not find the words to express how deplorable our conditions are. We in fact do not dare to announce our denunciation of the idols; we fear the idols. O how deep and dark a chasm have we fallen in! Even the Iranians, who have accomplished their miraculous revolution cannot export their popular and peaceful revolution outside their borders. No one could have been able to object to Iran's exporting its revolution in the peaceful way that the Iranians had won their victory over the Shah, facing the guns with flowers. The Iranians have not been able to advocate their way of winning victory, as if what they had accomplished were not unique, as if winning a victory in a peaceful way were a thing to be ashamed of! No, we must have the resolution and pride not to bow to the arrogant powers. When Iran is diffident about its great revolution, its foes will exploit that to charge Iran of supporting terrorism, or exporting terrorism. As things stand at the moment, neither does Iran speak out to bring its revolution to the attention of the world, nor do the others take the trouble to understand what the Iranians had achieved. It is a tragic thing how the Iranian revolution is shown to be: It is in reality a revolution of the people, a revolution of the intellect; it is also a revolution of the woman. Even the word revolution does not do justice to what happened, for the word revolution is a term that is foreign to us – we should really call it a revival of the prophets' action, a resurrection of the prophets' struggle. Let no one imagine that this unprecedented event will be forgotten. It is in fact a harbinger of the Islamic revolution. Our failing to understand the Iranian revolution, a revolution in the prophets' tradition, proves that our mind-set is still a mythical miracle-oriented one. Many people view the Iranian event as peculiar to Iran and the Shiites, as if the Shiites are not human beings, while the Qur'an teaches us: "Ye are but men, of the men He hath created;" (5:18) laws that apply to the Iranians apply to all mankind. How long will it take the Muslims to learn the meaning of the most honorable of martyrs (a reference to a tradition: The most nobly killed of martyrs … is that who stands for a tyrannical ruler to tell him the truth about his tyranny, and is put to death as a result)? How long will it take people to understand the Iranian event? They did not set fire to buildings and shops; they merely challenged the curfew, in perfect resolution. Who will teach people the struggle of the prophets, where one does not set fire, nor rob; where one is trusted not to hurt and is known to be safe. Is it not justifiable for Arkoun to say here that those who cite a verse from the Qur'an are really stirring all the problems of the mythical era? Is it not justifiable for him to say that when some will cite here the Qur'an's saying: "It is not fitting for an Apostle that he should have prisoners of war until he hath thoroughly subdued the land;" (8:67) to go ahead and kill prisoners of war? That which is stated in the above verse was once fair dealing, but is it still the right legislation? God's shari'ah, Divine law, has justice at its core, and whenever something nearer to justice comes into being, it has to supersede the previous legislation. Those who have enough learning and expertise must keep on the look out for what realizes more good for men to choose it as the right ruling; and even then, they must be alert to any facts that come to surface, and to see if that changes the ruling. Muslims will go on blundering until they understand the movement of history, that new things happen which were not there. I am sure that later generations will come up with better methods and techniques to solve problems like this without feeling that they are challenging God, His Book, and his Prophet, peace be upon him; instead of feeling that they are vitiating Allah's Scripture, they will feel that they are honoring it. They will feel great peace and they will feel they have broken the fetters that bind them. As for the question about terminating resistance against the Zionists, I do not say we should stop it, but I say if there arises a way more beneficial and effective, less costly and securing more good, then we have to choose that which realizes what is good to our ummah, the Muslim nation, in general. It will be a great thing if Arabs and Muslims join arms in doing good, without anyone of them losing anything, and with everyone winning rather than losing. Why cannot they boycott the enemy, and anyone who allies with the enemy? Why cannot we for instance manipulate the siege against Libya? Why cannot we say that Libya's position is just and fair: it is only requesting that the two convicts should have trial in a neutral country? Why cannot we say that the siege on Libya must be stopped; that we challenge that siege. Measures like these work most effectively, over the head of all the big powers. But we still work under great illusion, a charm is petrifying us. Why this unbelievable stupor? Why are we unable to sort out what is possible from what is impossible? Am I mad? Maybe. But I find these things within our capacity, and our nations will accept willingly and with pleasure the price of resolutions like this. America tried often to besiege Iran, but it failed, as it could not have enough states rallying to the boycott. So why should we work for building an atomic bomb, when we have the Tigris and the Euphrates? Why should we think we would starve if we decided to do without the American or Canadian or European food and medicine? It is great nonsense that we are made to swallow! My mind cannot accept the Muslims' attitude to their enemies, so let people call me what they like. I do agree with Arkoun when he says that we still live in the age of myth and wonders. Why do not we choose to solve a problem in peaceful ways when it can be solved like that? Why do not we put to use our human resources and our faith? Why do we insist on the only way that our enemy wants us to use? Why did Iraq invade and occupy Kuwait rather than strike and destroy the Israeli reactor? The Israelis did not hesitate to strike the Iraqi reactor. Had Iraq bombarded the Israeli reactor, it would have had all the Arabs behind it. What is the use of those missiles if we do not use them for our benefit? Where are those who can think? Where are the thinkers? If just one country would rise to the level of the time, and think on the basis of the science now available to everybody, it would attract all the Arabs and Muslims around it. This is not to be achieved with the ridiculous weapons that are being used, weapons that keep us in the mythical past. It is rather by saying to the neighbor: Here is my country if you wish to have it. A country which has risen to the scientific level of the world, and to the democratic consciousness of the world, cannot be ruled by a dictator. I feel what Iqbal felt when he said: Had my madness been potent enough I would have moved you! by which he meant that had his madness been strong enough it would have been contracted by the others, but it is not. And I feel that there must be something lacking in me that I do not move other Muslims. There are things that we are unable to think about, but which, as long as we fail to take into consideration, we shall be, as Garoudi says, offering our enemy, on a gold dish, what he wants us to do. A popular legend tells that a guardian had custody of an orphan's money; he managed it and submitted his account at intervals. One day, the orphan noticed an item in the accounts about shoes for the camels. So he inquired of the guardian: 'Do camels wear shoes, the same as horses?' And the guardian replied: 'Well, my son! If you are old enough to understand that camels do not wear shoes, then take custody of your money, for you are now a grown-up.' I recall this legend because the Muslim World has not become a grown-up. It still thinks that it needs horses to do jihad. We are still far behind the world in which we live! Why do not we think of the European Union? Its realization is an unprecedented event in the world. Europe did not unite by military invasions, for that kind of unification is something of the past. And now you find some Arabs begging to be members in that Union! The European Union did not happen as a result of mythical thinking; it happened with science and knowledge. But we do not understand that; we do not work for spreading science and knowledge. If we spent on spreading science and knowledge the amount that we spend on the purchase of weapons, we would be in a far better position. What an ironical situation we live! But who can really reveal the Islamic malaise? During the First World War, they used to call the Ottoman Empire 'the sick man of Europe'; and the war was waged for distributing the legacy of the sick man. So there you are! Do you sense how dense the darkness is in which we live? Do you see the demons and ghouls which torment us? Do you sense the charm we live in? To break out of this charm no war is needed, and no war can avail. All we need is more knowledge. But how can I transmit the knowledge about the modern world and about adapting to it? The Soviet Union did not fall because of the lack of weapons, but because of the lack of knowledge and understanding. Maybe it is in order to mention here an anecdote, to shed some light on the difficulty of raising people to the desired level. In the mid-fifties of last century, I had a friend, a shari'ah (Islamic law) judge from an Arab country. We exchanged some kind of intellectual dialogue. But he startled me one day with a sudden question, when we were alone in the mosque. "What do you think, brother, of those unbelievers who claim that the earth orbits the sun? Cannot they see with their eyes that it is the sun that goes round us?" It was stunning, but I managed to control myself, and I said: "Well, can you expect unbelievers to have better minds?" I said that because I imagined the wilderness I had to carry him through to grasp the idea of the present world. There is another anecdote, mentioned by Ibn Khaldoun (1332-1406 A.D.), in his Muqaddimah, about a minister and his little son. The minister had to spend several years in prison, and he had his little son with him. The son had seen nothing of the outside world. Of animals, he only saw rats. One day, the minister was telling his son about his experiences in the outside world, and he had to mention the horse. The son naturally asked what a horse was like. So the minister started describing the horse: its size, head, ears, body, tail, etc. After listening to his father's long representation of the horse, the boy said, in all innocence: "Is it not like a rat, dad?" Every time the father described the horse, the child's response was the same: "Is it not like a rat, dad?" And he was right, for he had never seen a horse. And we often have to give up in despair and to respond to the ignorant inquirer: Yes, it is like a rat, son. I may say now that Israel is a myth, a scarecrow, placed there to scare Arabs and Muslims, as long as they live in their myth and the age of wonders. Indeed, an idol has no strength, except in so far as people believe in it. A mythical faith is so tightly built, that it is the most difficult thing to pull apart or penetrate. If it were not so, if our way of understanding were not mythical, how can we explain that in the second Gulf war we forgot Israel and totally ignored it, and felt that the problems among the Arabs were much more urgent than the Israeli ghost? Indeed, the problems that keep Arabs and Muslims disunited are mythical: every party believes in physical strength, and that blocks our way to any understanding; it makes us incapable of seeing or hearing. When people are in that state, then to invade Kuwait is quite logical to their mind. Wherever we turn, we have to face the same reality: We need to understand how Arabs and Muslims can go on clinging to their mythical way of understanding. What Arkoun said about our clinging to myths is not different from Iqbal's saying that Islam chronologically belonged to the pre-scientific era, but it laid the basis for the scientific era. But we Muslims have not entered the world to which we chronologically belong. We have no sense of facts and figures, but our imagination is full of ghosts and myths. When will someone come and diagnose our disease? Who can discover the germ which makes of us what we are? You are not the first to ask me about violence. Your question about violence is the longest, and so my answer is the longest one. Some people used to say: How can you believe in non-violence when you know that even when the Islamists in Algeria succeeded by a democratic vote, democracy was aborted there to prevent them from ruling; What else can they do but to resort to violence? And I reply: Why do not you remember Iran? The revolution did not succeed there with ballot boxes, but they succeeded by facing the soldiers with flowers. Can someone come up with a comparison and contrast between what happened in Algeria and what happened in Iran? Is the utmost we can come up with is to say that Iran's event may not be explained according to laws or science, that it was just a miracle? And you see what violence is doing to Algeria at present? While one saw what flowers did to the soldiers, not just to show them love, but to show that non-violence was mightier than violence. The Iranians did not go out to boast about what they had accomplished, but that is not enough. Jesus Christ once said: "Who of you would kindle a light and then place it under a cover? No, you should place it on high, so that all people may see it." The Iranians should have showed their non-violent way, like a light, on a high place, so that everyone might see it. But they put it under a cover. We need to look for it in its dark niche, and to bring it out into light so that the ordinary person might perceive it. I have been quite put out that this creative, futuristic, scientific achievement should be ignored like that! Indeed, it should come out with all the necessary pictures and comments; it should be broadcast with all the multimedia it merits: no man or woman should be left ignorant of that event. Like all the great deeds of the Muslim World, the Iranian revolution remains neglected, since it is the acts of physical power that fascinate the Muslim World. Malek Bennabi meant this when he said: "The morbid adoration in the Muslim World for physical force has hindered its appreciation of knowledge and the power of ideas, that ideas are the real resource of people." He pointed out what happened to Germany, which lost all it had, as far as material things are concerned, but it had all its treasure of ideas, and so in no time it was able to reconstruct its material world. The Muslim World, on the other hand, has a barren intellect, and so it lives in the material stage, and has not yet entered the intellectual era. So, when Mr. al-Rifa'ee asks me: Is Jawdat Sa'eed upholding the annulling of 'jihad', an established Islamic duty, even when all its conditions are met? I reply by reversing this question and I ask him: Will Mr. al-Rifa'ee start fighting if all things could be solved without fighting? What is the meaning of uprightness in the Qur'an? What is the meaning of democracy? Is it not that all parties agree not to solve political problems by violence? Democracy will not enter a country whose population believe in or legitimate the assuming of authority through violence. As I said above belief that is realized through compulsion is not belief, nor is disbelief that is realized through compulsion disbelief. It is useful to note that the world of big powers, or, the evil powers according to Khomeini, cannot solve their problems through violence: this is a vital fact of the modern world, but the Muslim World seems not to understand that. The other fact is that nor can the world of the weaklings solve their problems with violence. For evidence one can just refer to the two Gulf wars: no benefits accrued through them, none whatsoever, for any of the disputing parties. It is only the big powers that reaped the gains of the war, in a most dishonest way. Can we learn the lesson then, and never carry out such belligerence, calling it jihad, and claiming that all the conditions for jihad have been met? I may go from here to claim that though America cannot be conquered by war, it can be conquered by ideas. In the course of a discussion, someone asked about America, and I said: "America is saying: 'Convince me and possess me!'" But how can we convince America? Should we say: "See our leaders! Why not adopt their ways?" Anyone can see how Islam is reaching more and more people, despite all our unfavorable conditions; so why go out and discourage people from the way of Allah? Malek Bennabi, may his soul rest in peace, used to say: Water irrigates not by running uphill, but by running downhill. So if we occupy a petty place in the world, with no ideas, with no solutions for the world's problems; if it is the other world which gives the solutions, resorting to science, and not to myths and miracles, why should people listen to us?" As the situation stands at the moment, it is he who has better thought that can sway the world; the miracle that we seek is sound thought – not muscles and not missiles. It is man who will defeat the idols. Let the kharijites be jubilant in their graves, seeing that the whole Muslim World has converted to their way; that the 'conditions for lawful jihad' of the other Muslims are no better than those of the kharijites': Is it not enough that one believes that he is in the right and the other is in the wrong to fight him? Is it not on this basis that Ali bin Abu Taleb was assassinated? But it appears that we are still in need of more wars, the spilling of more blood and more pain to believe! It is history that teaches people the lesson: but some are so dull that they will not learn until the catastrophe hits them; while the brighter ones will learn through observing what befell the others; and most people are at present of the first category. If we go by the Qur'an, we find so many peoples perishing by not learning the lessons of history; on the other hand, it is just the people of Jonah that are described as having learned without having to undergo the same catastrophe that befell the others. Eventually, however, the accumulation of painful events will drive the lesson home: events like the two Gulf wars should have been enough, and I hope no third war should be necessary to learn. It is so because when the past history does not teach people, then its lessons go unheeded, and more disasters prove to be necessary. About that we have in the Qur'an: "Such is the chastisement of thy Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement." (11:102) "They will not believe in it until they see the grievous penalty;" (26:201) Let me own here that the discourse of people like me is not at present compelling enough; we do not so far have the words equal to the topic; therefore, I should not blame those who do not respond; I should blame myself first of all. But many Muslims' minds are by now primed for the vital facts; they have matured through the painful experiences we have undergone. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 44 2009-05-06T08:12:56Z Admin 1 Created page with '==Jawdat Sa'eed has been known to reject violence; he has gone so far as to assert the need of "breaking the sword and discarding weapons...== '''" he has likened the buying of w...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==Jawdat Sa'eed has been known to reject violence; he has gone so far as to assert the need of "breaking the sword and discarding weapons...== '''" he has likened the buying of weapons to "the buying of idols; " in his first book, published more than thirty years ago, he affirmed the need of adopting the "way of thought of Adam's better son." So, is Jawdat Sa'eed advocating the discarding of jihad, which is commonly known to be an enjoined commandment in Islam, even when all the conditions for carrying out jihad are met? Is he urging Muslims to rebel against the command of the Almighty: " Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power (8, 60)?" Is he calling on us to be passive onlookers while the Zionist arsenal grows at rocket rate? Are you asking us to halt the resistance movements against the expansionist, destructive powers?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} My brother Abdul-Jabbar is trying here to provoke me concerning violence; he devotes to this the longest of his questions. You ask me to be more articulate and clear than ever about this issue, and it is your right to ask for that. I only hope that I can convey the message in clearer terms than I have done thus far. When, more than a third of a century back, I wrote my book Ibn Adam's Way of Thought, I was anxious just to have the idea brought to the attention of people, to announce my adoption and promotion of the idea. I had little hope of winning people over to that credo. One of the first titles in that book is 'For Announcement Rather than for Persuasion'. There have been many correspondents who suggested that I change that title and try to convince people with my ideas, that an announcement would not suffice. Such letters reveal the difficulty of the issue, the many doubts related to it. But once this subject is understood, you will rather be amazed on how we failed to understand this idea; it is so in the same way as when men failed to understand that it is not the sun that rotates around us, but that it is we who rotate around the sun. Let me remind you of the line of poetry quoted by Khatami in Beem Moj. The translator rendered it like this: "You light of wing, he who relishes the breeze, how could you realize the amount of darkness and blundering that afflict us?" Yes, we are in the darkness, and I think that Khatami realizes the significance of the words he is quoting. As a step towards understanding this issue, we need to tackle the value of predominant ideas, how they block comprehension and obstruct people's hearing and seeing. The Qur'an gives much attention to this situation; it mentions deafness, dumbness and blindness in such verses as "Deaf, dumb and blind, they will not return to the path (2, 18);" it refers to how a predominant idea block understanding in, for instance, the following verse: " Has he made the gods all into one God (Allah)? Truly this is a wonderful thing! … We never heard the like of this among the people of these latter days: this is nothing but a made-up tale! (37, 5-7)." But though we have the Book (i.e. the Qur'an) in our hands, it is without life, and so does science in our culture lose its effectiveness. This situation is reminiscent of something the Prophet said about the Jews and Christians: "Do not the Jews and Christians have the Bible in their possession, and yet in no way do they benefit from it." The tragic state of the Muslim World is in fact our prime impetus to keep thinking about the Muslims' dilemma: What is it that makes them the biggest losers in all their endeavours among all nations? When I undertook to advocate such ideas my driving power was that I believed in convincing the human mind rather than in subduing it. Unless we admit that man will give more through persuasion than through intimidation and coercion we would not have started to understand man, nor God the Almighty. Indeed we need to understand three things: (1) God: We do not understand God; it is true of our comprehension of God what the Qur'an says: " But this thought of yours which you entertained concerning your Lord, has brought you to destruction, and now you have become of those utterly lost! (41, 23);" at least, we need to admit that our perception of God is not necessarily the correct one. It is in order here to mention a giant thinker, Ali Shari'ati: he specialized in sociology and comparative religions. When I read his book Man and Islam, I felt him to be an acrobat among handicapped or lame people. He had vision and hearing, and he had profound perception; he also galvanized his reader and sent a spark of fire in his heart with his own faith. He once wrote, quoting Xenophanes: “Every society shapes its god in accordance with its consciousness.” And that is a true fact. To understand God and come to know him, we have to realize that there is no direct access to Him; we can only know Him through His creation, and that leads us to the second thing we need to understand. (2) God's creation, this universe. We need to get acquainted with this universe, and we shall then perceive God's constant laws, constant and yet progressive, in the sense that God creates more things all the time, and the ultimate creation of His has been man, and that is number three; (3) man: man's nervous system is equipped with the capacity to reflect and unveil God's laws, and is capable of controlling. The above then are three inseparable things we need to know. The world in its totality points to its Lord; it is through the universe that we learn about God. We can learn how God created the camels, mountains, peoples, man, man with the authority he has in the universe. It is so because the universe runs by laws, and man has the resources to unveil those laws, and then to control things. About mankind we read in the Qur'an: " Mankind was one single nation (2, 213)" – they were created to be one nation, and are still so. In their conviction might is right; that is how history passed, and is still passing. I have the might, therefore I am your Lord, your high Lord. This is one nation, anywhere in the world; even America, the biggest taghoot says: I am your supreme Lord. So long as might is right, then the law of the jungle is prevailing, and mankind is one nation. Man worshipped and still worships power, and worships him who wields power. The source of conflict is that, since man has a nervous system, and is hence in a position to understand and have control, then he must not be exploited by another party, by a human like himself. I have discussed this subject, and I am still probing. Last year, my book Be like Adam's Son was published and, God willing, I shall write another book bearing the title Break Your Bow. When I say that buying weapons is equal to buying idols, I say that to give a jolt to the Muslim, and to give a jolt to Man in general. You men can understand each other, and you need not live by the law of the jungle. You need to lay down concepts and rules and laws to cooperate. Man will not be man until he is like Adam's son – we have to understand this and bring it within the understanding of Muslims and people everywhere. It would be helpful to draw our cues from the Messenger, peace be upon him, and the Qur'an – when I refer to the Messenger, I do that on the grounds that he is the representative of prophets and their witness, as we read in the Qur'an: " We have sent you as a Witness, a Bearer of Glad Tidings, and a Warner, and as one who invites to Allah's Grace by His leave, and as a Lamp spreading light (33, 44-45)." What all the prophets taught is one and the same religion, summed up in tawheed (oneness of God), and the discarding of idolatry. As for rituals, these may vary; and as for dealings, they will go on changing across time, though along the solid basis of justice. Now as for tawheed, it also boils down to observing justice – injustice is the cardinal idolatry (in reference to The Qur'an, 31, 13,) and so is idolatry the cardinal injustice. To establish justice among people is tawheed, the word of impartiality, as expounded in the Qur'an " Come to common terms as between us and you: … that we do not erect, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than Allah (3, 64)." The word of impartiality is equal to justice – that I hand to you the same as I allow myself to get; and forbid you what I forbid myself. It is certainly being just to deal with you the same as I expect you to deal with me. We read in the Qur'an that a certain prophet said: " I do not wish, in opposition to you, to do that which I forbid you to do (11, 88)." If the other declines to accept justice, then it is I who accept the law of justice; it will not be established by the other. Should it be for the other to enact for me, then he is dominating me. It is I who establish the law, and act on it, unilaterally if necessary. That is what the Messenger, peace be upon him, teaches us – that is the noblest thing that descended from heaven or emerged in the earth. How can you be a Muslim unless you accept the way of Adam's son? The Messenger accepted the way of Adam's son when he called people to God; some believed and some disbelieved; those who disbelieved tortured those who believed, trying to force them out of the new religion, to compel them to revert to disbelief. During all that period, the Messenger urged: "Have patience, family of Yaser (one of the Muslim families tortured by unbelievers); we shall meet in Paradise." About that the Qur'an commanded: " to hold back their hands from fight and but establish regular prayers (4, 77)." From the first sura (i.e. chapter) revealed, the Qur'an taught a believer that he had to disobey the tyrant, the taghoot who intended to impose his opinion with force. We read in that first sura: " Do you see one who forbids a votary when he turns to pray … Nay, do not obey him: but bow down in adoration (96, 9-19);" we read about a certain historical case of persecution, " And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in Allah, Exalted in power…Those who persecute the Believers, men and women, and do not turn in repentance … (85, 8-10)." The Prophet himself did not take any action in reaction to those who hurt him. From the first day, as we can see, the Islamic way was to call to truth and be patient to injury. The same attitude is reported by the Qur'an about each one of the prophets: " Has not the story reached you, O people, of those who went before you? – of the people of Noah, and 'Ad, and Thamud? – and of those who came after them? None knows but Allah. To them came Messengers with Clear Signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said: 'We do deny the mission on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious disquieting doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Their Messengers said: 'Is there a doubt about Allah the Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He Who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed!' They said: 'Ah! You are no more than human, like ourselves! You wish to turn us away from the gods our fathers used to worship: then bring us some clear authority.' Their Messengers said to them: 'True, we are human like yourselves, but Allah grants His grace to such of His servants as He pleases. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as Allah permits. And on Allah let all men of faith put their trust. We do not have any reason why we should not put our trust on Allah. Indeed He has guided us to the Way we follow. We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on Allah.' And the Unbelievers said to their Messengers: 'Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or you shall return to one religion.' But their Lord inspired this Message to them: 'Verily We shall cause the wrong-doers to perish! And verily We shall cause you to abide in the land, and succeed them. This for such as fear the Time when they shall stand before My tribunal – such as fear the Punishment denounced (14, 9-14)." This debate does not pertain to any one messenger; it represents all messengers and all peoples. In some other contexts, one particular prophet is reported to have engaged in a similar debate; the theme is the same: a call to follow truth, reacting with causing hurt to the caller, expelling from home, and trying to force the callers to revert to the old religion. This much-repeated scenario must be analyzed, to see how the prophets dealt with this recurrent situation. They dealt with it by offering the word of impartiality: we invite and you invite, and we do not have recourse to bringing hurt or compulsion or ejecting from home. Let him believe who wills, and let him disbelieve who wills; there is no coercion in religion. In the matter of religion and opinion there is no room for compulsion; they may be delivered through persuasion. Let us compete in pleading for our views. Indeed, we shall not resort to using violence or compulsion, even if you resort to them. We shall forbear your injury until people accept us or accept you. The prophets are here laying down a universal law for religion and the dissemination of opinions; force must be put at bay: no compulsion in religion; violence must be eliminated; no compulsion in religion or politics or opinion: it is rather persuasion and calling with wisdom and good exhortation; it is debate and discussion in a peaceful way. That is the way until change takes place at the social level. That was the example set by Muhammad, peace be upon him. He set the example for the upright (rashed) ummah, a nation that does not take offence against people for their religion or opinions, unless they be the first to resort to injury and compulsion. And even after the others initiate injury and compulsion, they will not be confronted with injury and compulsion – it is with patience that the upright ummah should respond, until society is converted to the upright way (al-rushd). Once the society has been converted to uprightness, such a society will safeguard people's ideas and creeds from any aggression. Non-believers will have the same right as believers: they can propagate their system, peacefully and with persuasion and kindness. It must be admitted here that Muslims, except for a small minority, do not have the tolerance to give to others the right to propagate their opinions, the same as Muslims do propagate. This is in fact a lack of confidence in the ideas and religion to which they call people. We should concede to others the same right that we give to ourselves, and forbid them only that which we forbid ourselves. Indeed, things will eventually come to that, in spite of all protesting. The law that will prevail is that expressed in the Qur'anic verse: "For the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth (13, 17)." And even when the society is corrupted, the only course that a Muslim should follow is to call people and try to win them over. Once the society accepts his ideas he is bound to guarantee everybody's right to have their say and then, anyone who declines and wants to dictate his opinion by force, not by persuasion, such a person is resorting to the law of the jungle and the worship of force. The attitude of all the prophets was that of Adam's son (as expressed in the Qur'an: We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us.). It is in this way that the prophets laid down the foundations for the right democracy. Such democracy is at odds with the modern democracy – the latter has the drawback of legalizing the attack and assassination of tyrants and foreign hostile people. In this the modern democracy is at fault, for society must be converted, in a peaceful way, to whatever faith that appeals to it. Muslims have in the modern time adopted those democracies and human rights. Human rights as expressed by the prophets focus on duties rather than on rights: it is your duty as a believer to change your society through persuasion and not through coercion. A person who resorts to coercion, and that who reacts by resorting to coercion, both are applying the law of the jungle – in the prophets' language, both are destined to enter the Fire. It is so because both glorify force. This point is one of the most difficult in the whole issue: the prophets did not permit self-resistance if the person in authority hurts you for an opinion that you hold. You invite people to build up a society in which people are not penalized for their opinions. That is why one of the prophets, Jacob, has the following reply to his people, as recounted in the Qur'an: " The leaders, the arrogant party among his people, said: 'O Shu'aib! We shall certainly drive you out of our city – you and those who believe with you; or else you and they shall have to return to our ways and religion.' He said: 'What! Even though we do detest them? We should indeed invent a lie against Allah, if we returned to your ways after Allah has rescued us therefrom; nor could we by any manner of means return thereto unless it be as in the will and plan of Allah, our Lord. Our Lord can reach out to the utmost recesses of things by His knowledge.' (7, 88-89)." It is in order to say here that the word 'millah' is a Qur'anic word, and it refers to the model or pattern of society and the values which are set to build the society on that basis. It transpires that the 'millah' of the prophets is categorically unlike the 'millahs' by which the present world lives – it is for this reason that I said above that the Qur'anic expression 'Mankind were one nation' is true of mankind, and they are still one nation, since they believe in changing people's convictions with compulsion. The prophets were sent to protect people's convictions and ideas. It is he who adopts that approach that can invite people to the word of impartiality: that no coercion is allowed in calling people to religion, that we may not take each other for gods, that we assist people in freeing themselves from being enslaved to other humans, and to be the slaves of only the Lord of mankind. The Muslim World, in all its communities and groups, is obsessed with force. It might be true now that some have begun to see something new looming, most vaguely, other than violence. We must be prompt to call people to reject violence in the dissemination of ideas, and to renounce the politicians who ascend through violence. But how do we renounce them? It is not by killing them or assassinating them – it is by declining to obey them whenever they command something that is a disobedience of God; we renounce them by not supporting them in their having recourse to the law of the jungle. Men believe that they will be exterminated, one and all, should they hold back from obeying the tyrannical ruler, when he commands them to kill Muslims. That is an illusion: when people are convinced of this style of change, it becomes very difficult for the tyrant to put to death even one individual, let alone to put to death a whole nation. That is then the merciful way, the simple and right way for all to follow; it is the least costly of ways, the most fruitful – and yet we remain unmindful of it, we do not promote it, and we do not alert people to it. That indeed is an ugly suppression of God's signs (a reference to The Qur'an, 2, 159 and 174.) If you succeed in getting this way implanted in the minds of people, then women and children can take part: you do not need for this way strong able-bodied young men, or a lot of wealth and weapons. We merely say: we refuse that, and we say it openly, so kill us if you like. That is what the Father of Prophets, Noah, peace be upon him, declared, as the Messenger Muhammad, peace be upon him, was directed to recite his story in the Quran: " Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! He said to his People: 'O my People, if it be hard on your mind that I should stay with you and commemorate the Signs of Allah – yet I put my trust in Allah. You then get an agreement about your plan and among your Partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me, and give me no respite,' (10, 71)." Well, my dear brother Abdul-Jabbar, I address you here as editor-in-chief of the journal Current Islamic Issues, that I do not negate jihad – all I do is to try to show that the jihad as espoused by the Messenger of God is unlike that of the khawarej (the group who fought Ali), and the jihad practiced over the centuries after the period of the Upright Caliphate, from the time of the Umayyads – all Muslims indeed subscribed to that same type of jihad, and so were followers of khawarej. This fact may be easier to comprehend if we perceive that a rule that comes by force will not be a lawful rule, nor an upright (rashed) rule; it will be an oppressive and unjust rule. When you have the upright society, then whoever rises against that society, we should act in the light of the following verse: " If two parties among the Believers fall into a quarrel, you make peace between them: but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then you all fight against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of Allah; but if it complies, then make peace between them with justice, and be fair: for Allah loves those who are fair and just (49, 9)." This applies if the confrontation is between a ruler who came through persuasion and the challenger who seeks to assume power without people's consent. In this case it is the aggressor who must be fought. But should the challenger be rising against another non-upright (baghi) party who is in authority, then it is a jahiliyyah (in the fashion of pre-Islam Arabs) fighting, waged under a false banner. When the situation is like this, the Messenger commands us that we have nothing to do with any of the fighting parties; a number of traditions, concerning the time of chaotic fighting, all command a Muslim to avoid any involvement, to break his sword, and to stay at home. One tradition goes so far as to insist that should his home be broken into under those circumstances, and an armed man threatens to kill him, he should reply with the words of Adam's son [ As reported in the Qur'an: "If you stretch your hand against me, to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against you to slay you: for I do fear Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds (5, 28);] if the aggressor is intent on killing him, and he is afraid of the shimmer of the sword, let him throw some garment over his face. I do no have a feeling of self-contradiction; I do not feel that I have annulled jihad. On the contrary, I feel I am in perfect harmony with the traditions of the Messenger, and the behaviour of all the prophets. The Messenger, peace be upon him, was not contradicting himself when he once said: "Three individuals will enter Paradise in reward for one arrow: the workman who made it, the one who carried it, and the one who shot it;" while, in another context he said: "Break your bow, cut its cord, and blunt your sword by striking with it on stones;" "Let him who has sheep drive his sheep in the far-off hills, let him who has camels be with his camels, let him who has a land be in his land." And even when they asked him about one who has nothing of this, he rejoined: "Let him be at his home, and let him be like Adam's [better] son." Muslims have not, even until now, investigated the problem of the Khawarej. The Khawarej are those people who seek to establish religion through compulsion, and to establish society through compulsion, those who kill persons on account of their convictions. Such issues remain misty, and as I said there has been no study of those problems. Ali, may God grace him with His favour, is quoted to have said: Do not fight the Khawarej after me. If he has been rightly quoted, then the idea is not that what the Khawarej stood for was now legal, but because all the others have adopted the way of the Khawarej. This has actually happened, but things have not been clarified yet. In all the analyses and philosophies I have read about the legal bases for war, the state and the nations, I have not seen any approach more comprehensible and coherent and feasible than that of the prophets, and that is the approach I am trying to expound here. I hope I could present the issue more clearly, but I feel confident that those who come later to theorize and analyze, Muslim or non-Muslim, will expand the issue and bring it within the capacity of the average man and woman, and then people will cease to be in doubt and perplexity, and they will no longer be desperate of the end of the law of the jungle. Indeed, God has taught His prophets the best of laws, as He makes it clear in the Qur'an: " And no question do they bring to you but We reveal to you the truth and the best explanation thereof (25, 33)." What I have found out in this connection gives me great peace of heart – I feel I can address to the whole world the teaching of the prophets: the word of impartiality, the word of justice, the word of piety (God says about believers: " and made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it (48, 26).") We call upon the whole world, the philosophers and all advocates of the human rights that we all cooperate to have the right of veto abolished, since it is the gravest corruption. It is the legacy of the Romans, not the legacy of modernism. The right of veto is the major barrier blocking the way of the development of the world. There are minor taghoots, protected by the greater taghoot. It is those advocates of human rights who keep dumb in the face of the gravest mischief, and the worst violation of the rights of man: Are they not ashamed of crusading for the rights of man and of their big claim to democracy? The right of veto, which the whole world accepts, is incompatible with democracy, nor with the rights of man, nor with mankind. It is the biggest hurdle in the way of the world, and it makes all efforts in vain. They see the straw in the eyes of others, while they fail to see the trunk in their eyes. But must we also keep silent at that heinous state, as if it is fore granted, an inevitable fact of life! Well, that is how things stand; but that must change and must be a thing of the past. Well, my esteemed brother Abdul-Jabbar, I do not challenge or defy God or His Book. But when huge fortunes are spent on arms, arms that the seller knows when and how he can destroy them, when they become a source of danger for his interests, when such purchase is said to be prepared to defeat the enemy, and when it is said to be in response to God's injunction: " Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power (8, 60)," when things are conceived in this way, I find that we flout God's system, and we do not realize the real sense of the word 'enemy', and, above all, we show our ignorance of the state of things. The Marines, and all the Americans, were expelled from Lebanon when Lebanon had no army and no government, and when the Lebanese were even killing each other. But, with all that, the Americans and the French were expelled, and Israel withdrew from its siege of Beirut. That was achieved by the Lebanese, the nation fragmented by sectarian conflict. Somalia, too, the hungry and naked nation, succeeded in expelling America and the United Nations, without a regular army, and without the benefit of the usual weaponry of armies. The problem is always not a problem of the multitude, nor of the political leaders – it is a problem of the intellectual leaders. Japan also won its independence without an independence war, without having to kill the Americans, and without losing Japanese lives. The world has changed, and force has no part to play but to create illusions. But let us turn our eyes to Iraq, a country much larger than either Lebanon or Somalia, being inspected home by home (before the war of March, 2003), for no real security purpose, only for humiliation. It is so because Iraq had a government and a regular army and semi-sophisticated weapons. It is a hoax, a huge farce. It is a system that belongs to the past, an obsolete style. Maybe we are not equipped to understand such things, but it is perhaps easier to see how the Arabs said during the second Gulf War: Forget about Israel and fight Iraq: was that a problem of weapons or a problem of concepts and values and the intra-Arab relationships? So we still ignore such matters and say about Israel that it has a destructive arsenal; and yet we request the destruction of Iraq's destructive weapons, for it poses more peril in our view than Israel's weapons. My friend, what is all this darkness that prevents us from discussing these issues? Are these things not among the Islamic problems? Why do not we discuss them in earnest and in depth? There are of course certain preconceptions that bar our way, and discourage us from studying those issues. But how high is the price we have to pay, and how valuable the time we are losing! When some people ask me: Are you advocating the neglect of jihad, which is an enjoined command, even after all its conditions are met? Are Muslims to defy God's command: " Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power (8, 60)," when they say that, I say: Thank God that Muslims begin to realize that there are conditions for jihad; though they still argue over the particular conditions. When God, the Almighty says: " Let there be no compulsion in religion," He is setting very strict limits on jihad. Indeed, many nations do now practice ' No compulsion in religion ', while Muslims do not practice it. For some other nations, what any one believes is not a reason to fight him; it is only right to fight him if he tries to force others to change their belief. But it is not so with Muslims: indeed, jihad can be rightly waged against Muslims more than any other nation, since it is they who practice coercion against people of different faith, and it is they who let tyrants, taghoots, rule them by force. But what happens in the world is that there is no power that seeks to relieve nations who suffer from coercion; on the contrary war is waged to replace existing coercion with another coercion. In the sphere of religion, achievement is not measured with the amount of muscle and weapons and destruction; it is measured by sounder and wiser thinking, by helping people, and by relieving them of injustice and coercion. You quote, my brother Abdul-Jabbar the Qur'anic verse, " Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power (8, 60)," to hint that I am rebelling against God and His commandments. But in the above verse there is indeed a good example of the change. The verse is commanding Muslims to have their horses ready for fighting the enemy, but if someone says that the preparing of horses for jihad is something of the past and is not to be considered nowadays as a force in fighting, would such reasoning be a defying of God and His Book? Don't you see that Muslims' clinging to material power has blocked their way to understanding? When God says, No compulsion in religion, He is ruling out material power and neutralizing it and invalidating recourse to it as a means to converting people to religion. Do I have to remind you of Issue Four, 1997, of your Current Islamic Issues, which reports a symposium you held concerning the effect of time and place on jurisprudence. Some distinguished scholars in the symposium had interesting ideas concerning the testimony of woman. So do you say that those scholars were rebelling against God and His Book? And if we determine that slavery and all the rules pertaining to it are to be abolished, would that be a canceling of commandments revealed in God's Book? The same question rises concerning the scholars' resolution concerning new aspects of iddat (period of no-remarriage after the death of husband, or divorce.) It is the political things, however, in the Muslim World which deserve reconsideration and fathoming – we need to really explore the domain of leadership and politics as an authority. It is to such things that you refer in your Question 11, when you say that Muhammad Arkoun ridicules those who quote the Qur'an in the course of a debate, on the ground that, "such practice raises the whole range of problems of moving from the mythological to the scientific age;" so how do I judge his attitude? Well, I would say that your observation does not come from a vacuum – your words are really related to something that the Qur'an frequently points out, that people can come to such a state that they no longer can benefit from their hearing and vision, and can degrade to the level of animals. The Qur'an says about such people: " If you call them to guidance, even then they will never accept guidance (18, 57), " and " Say: 'Shall we tell you of those who lose most in respect of their deeds? Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works, (18, 103-104)." Don't you see how the present-day Muslims hold up posters on which they have written: "Democracy is heretical", and yet they endure life under 'taghoots: dictators', and they long to be themselves taghoots, who compel people to accept religion? And so, Arkoun's statement is not without justification. It is true that we have not adapted to the changes which have taken place in the world concerning the taghoot worship. Other parts of the world, as Iqbal has pointed out, have ridden themselves of worshipping the taghoot, though they have not yet believed in God – the idea here is that the dictators have disappeared from some parts of the world, people no longer believe in them, but those parts would not like to help other parts of the world rid themselves of their taghoots: they are worried that those other parts should give up their taghoots. My brother Abdul-Jabbar, God has not sent those people over us haphazardly. It is tragic how idiotic a life we lead, in a way that has brought upon us the world's derision and contempt. When they deal with us they deal with our mythical way of thinking. Is not one who buys an expired commodity a person who lives in a mythical world? When God deplores the practice of those who are incapable of comprehension, such people are so because they do not adapt to a changing world. God's shari'ah, i.e. law, is justice. Now God does not reveal to people the piecemeal justice that must be applied day by day, as new things come up. The application of justice in detail is the concern of people themselves. Arkoun has for instance written a book entitled: Islamic Thought: A Scientific Reading. The Foreword to that book was written by Hashem Saleh, and the title of that Foreword is: Between the orthodox mentality and the dogmatic mentality. In his article, Hashem Saleh analyzes and dissects the dogmatic frame of mind. Such studies are new, and they use new terminology, and they discuss how man comes to a condition where he becomes incapable of understanding or comprehending. But we can say that the orthodox and dogmatic mentality is the same as abay'iyyah: patriarch-idolization-and-infallibility discussed in the Qur'an; it is a state in which an individual clings to the conventions and values he has inherited from the ancestors and abolishes the actual reality and abolishes history. They say of the dogmatic person that he is that individual who is required by the objective circumstances to change his attitude, but is incapable of doing so. Well, that applies to us in the Muslim World. It is for a similar reason that Iqbal said that although Islam emerged before the scientific age, it heralded the scientific age; and so Malik bin Nabi when he says that a person who is ignorant of the things that the twentieth century has added to human knowledge will not utter a word among people but bring on himself disgrace. So, yes, my brother, the Muslim World is sick, in the full sense of the word. And yet, that it is sick does not mean it is incurable. It is the mythological mentality that is killing people in Algeria and Afghanistan. And having mentioned Afghanistan, it is in order to mention that Sultan Abdul-Hameed said to Al-Afghani (one of the first Muslim thinkers in the modern age): "Why don't you go to Japan and call to Islam there?" And Al-Afghani's retort was: "And what can I say if they say: 'Your people are more in need of calling them to Islam than we are!' " Indeed, the Japanese have been a nation which adapted to the modern world, while we still buy from the modern world its weapons which are outdated, including the nuclear bomb. But what does he who sells us the weapons think of us? He is right to look at us as the seller of blue beads views the superstitious who buy those beads to hang them around their children's necks to ward off the evil eye. Well, my esteemed sir, do you know what Nicholson said to Khrushchev when the latter said: "Your grandchildren will be communist;"? He replied: "It will not be possible then to impose it on them with compulsion, but by persuasion." You see how America is open to us, and open to rational persuasion, and yet, we still believe that America will not be ours except by the sword. So how to liberate the Muslim, whose mind is paralyzed, who gives no appreciation to thought? How to convey the Muslim to the world of thought? We don't see around us those who can say how the world will be when logic and science are the language! I myself do not find the right words; it is as Moses said, as reported in the Qur'an, "My breast will be straitened. And my speech may not go smoothly, (26, 13)." We are still even unable to announce our disbelief in idols. We are still not liberated, and we do not find the adequate words, to make known what darkness and doubt and ignorance we live in. Even the Iranians, who stupefied the world with their miraculous revolution have not been able to export their peaceful and popular revolution to other parts or even to their neighbours. No one could have objected to such peaceful revolution, which faced guns with flowers, with roses carried by women and men, when the Shah was expelled without a single charge being short, and the Shah could not find an asylum to take refuge in. The Iranians also failed in showing pride in the peaceful nature of their revolution – they were ashamed of it. But you must stand up as heroes. Don't bow to arrogant intimidation. The Iranians kept silent about that aspect of their revolution, and, in this way, the crooked parties found their chance to condemn Iran, claiming that it backs terrorism, or exports terrorism. Not only did Iran fail to export its miraculous revolution, but the others also failed to appreciate the achievement, failed utterly and absolutely. It is tragic how this happened. The great merit of Iran's revolution is that it is a revolution of the people, and it could be called a woman's revolution. In fact, even the word revolution disfigures the achievement in Iran, since this word is Western. We had better call it a revival of the prophets' way, a resurrection in this age of the struggle of prophets. But this effort will never go west, it will never be in vain. This matchless endeavour is a pioneering one in the Islamic movement. Is not our failure to appreciate the Iranian prophets-style endeavour proof enough of our mythical superstitious mentality? Lots of people would take the events of Iran to be unique to Iran and to Shi'ite Muslims, as if Iran and the Shi'ites were not human beings, "Nay, you are but men," as the Qur'an says (5, 18). What happened in Iran was realized by laws, laws that are common to all mankind. Today, and while I write these words, I hear on the news of Indonesian revolt against Suharto. Hundreds were burned to death, and the deaths were caused by those who were setting fire to shops, and those who died were trying to rob the shops – they died from the fire or the smoke. So when will the Muslims learn the meaning of 'the master of martyrs' (a reference to a tradition of the Prophet's, in which he designated as a master of martyrs a believer who was put to death for no other cause but that he spoke the truth to an oppressive ruler,)? When will they appreciate the Iranian phenomenon? The Iranians did not set fire to buildings or shops – they rather challenged the curfew, with resolution and determination. Who will teach Muslims the prophets-style struggle, in which you do not incinerate or rob, in which the Muslim is the safest and the trusted? Where are the scholars? So is it not right for Arkoun after that to say that those who seek support in a verse from the Qur'an would raise the whole range of the problems of transferring from the mythical age to the scientific age? Would it be right to seek the support from the Qur'an where it says: "It is not fitting for a Messenger that he should have prisoners of war until He has thoroughly subdued the land (8, 67)?" and use this to put to death the prisoners of war, and distribute the women as captives. Yes, that was a just procedure one day, but must it be operative now? God's shai'ah, or law, is justice, and it must evolve to the better, to the more beneficial. The more profitable must abrogate what is less profitable. What those who are learned and specialized think to be more like justice must be the accepted ruling until they find something more in line with justice and more profitable. It seems that Muslims will go on living in great confusion until they can realize that many things have take place and are taking place in history. Those who come after us to solve these problems while come up with new ways and means – without feeling that they are defying God, His Book and His Prophet. They will not feel that they are annulling God's Scripture; on the contrary, they will feel they are glorifying God and His Book and His shari'ah. They will have great peace of mind, and they will feel that they have released themselves from the heavy burdens and the yokes, not that they are rebelling against God and His Messenger. When some say, are we to stop resistance and give in to our enemy, I don't say we should stop resistance; but I do say if there is another way which is more efficient and profitable and less costly, then we must choose that alternative. How great would it be for Arabs and Muslim to help one another in righteousness and piety, without anyone losing anything, each one of them gaining; all boycotting the enemy and those who back the enemy? When America boycotts a certain Arab or Muslim country, why don't we side firmly with our brethren and challenge America? We must step forward and take our chance, and America will be thwarted, and we shall win. But what is that exceeding callousness and falling into sorcery? We cannot distinguish between the possible and the impossible. Why don't we set the blockade ourselves, instead of the other imposing blockade against us? I might by crazy, but I find such things possible, and our nations will accept with pleasure the consequences of such attitudes. But no one seems to have the ability to discuss these matters; it is as if we are charmed into silence. How many times did America try to impose blockades against Iran, but it failed every time to take any measures against those who held back from observing the blockade. Why can't we consider doing without the American, Canadian or European food products? Why can't we consider the production of a nuclear bomb, when we have the Tigris and Euphrates; we think we are going to die of hunger and lack of medicines. What fallacies and illusions have dominance over the minds! I can't endure the Muslims' attitude towards their enemies! Let anybody who feels like it consider me crazy, but I like to side with Arkoun when he says we are living in the age of myths and marvels. When we can solve our problems without war, and with a believing and human approach, we ignore that, and we choose instead the approach that our enemy longs to see us adopt. Why did Iraq invade Kuwait? Why did it not strike the Israeli reactor? The Israelis did destroy the Iraqi reactor, so why did not Iraq strike the Israelis reactor with its rockets, instead of occupying Kuwait, and drag all the Arabs to side with it? Why are doing with those rockets if we cannot benefit from them? What we doing with our intellects? Where are the thinkers? Should only one country start to perceive things on a scientific basis, which is now a common thing in the world, it can gather around it all the Arabs and Muslims, not by attacking its neighbours with the mythical armed forces, but by saying to its neighbour: "I shall surrender to you my country." A country in which science is understood, and where people have democratic consciousness cannot be ruled by a dictator, and, in the same way, a backward nation cannot enjoy the rule of a democratic ruler. So, what can I say? I quote here what Iqbal said: I tore my pockets with feeling, and yet you are carefree; I don't blame you – it is that I am not crazy enough What Iqbal is saying here is that had he been crazy enough, he would have transmitted madness to the other by infecting him. And that is how I myself feel. There are so many things that we are incapable of thinking of; but unless we think about those things we shall be offering our enemy, as Garoudi has said, what it wants on a gold platter. There is an interesting popular fable about an orphan who had a certain man in charge of his money. The man used to keep an account listing all the money spent. One day, the orphan looked over that ledger and noted a sum paid for buying hoofs for camels. So he inquired: Do they make camels wear hoofs like horses? The guardian who managed the money of the orphan said: Well, son, if you can realize that camels do not need hoofs, then please take back your money, for you are now mature. But the Muslim World is not mature yet. It still accepts to buy hoofs for camels, and it still has its horses, mules, donkeys and camels to fight in the cause of God. We do not understand the world in which we live. The European Union is a new event in the world. Europe is not being unified by military invasion – this kind of unification is outmoded. The Arab West is asking to join the European Union. So when shall we understand the European Union? It is not being effected through myths, but through science and knowledge. And yet, we cannot understand that, and do not try to spread science and knowledge, but spend the money that we need for science and knowledge on buying weapons! What irony! Who can unravel the disease of the Muslim World? During the First World War, they used to call the Ottoman state 'the sick man', and the War was waged to distribute the legacy of that sick man. But shall we ever understand the charmed world in which we live? Breaking the incantation does not call for war; it only requires knowledge. But I do not feel I possess the ability to convey the knowledge of the new world, and how to adapt to it. So let me stop discussing the problem of violence, war, force and preparing for war. During the mid-fifties, I was in an Arab country, and I had a friend, a shari'ah judge, who judged among people concerning injuries, money, marriage and divorce. He and I had shallow pseudo-scholarly debates. One day, we were by ourselves, he and I, and he surprised me with a question – he said: "Don't you see, sir, how those disbelievers say that the earth go round? Don't they see that it is the sun that goes round us? I was taken aback, but I restrained myself and said: They are disbelievers, so naturally then can't understand. I felt I was unable to convey to him, then and there, a consciousness of the relevant facts. I had a predicament like that of the minister, whose experience was related by Ibn Khaldoun. That minister was imprisoned with his son, and the son had not seen a horse in his life. So one day, the horse was mentioned, and the child wanted to know what it looked like, and the minister described the horse as vividly as he could. But, at the end of his description, the child asked in his innocence: But tell me, father, does it look like a rat? Maybe the father would have to say, Yes, son, it is like a rat! Israel is a myth, a scarecrow in which Muslims and Arabs are scared, for they live in the age of myths and miracles. An idol does not have any power of its own – it is we who infuse it with power, when we believe in its power. A mythological conviction is an authority that cannot be pulled apart or undone – otherwise, what scientific explanation, what non-mythical interpretation can we find for forgetting about Israel in the Second Gulf War, and thinking that the problems among Arabs are much more serious than the Israeli ghost. But really, the problems among us are a ghost and a myth: We believed in force, and that blocked all other ways; because we could not see, and will not see in the near future, anything but force to unite Arabs and Muslims. It is from this angle that the invasion of Kuwait appeared logical – logical from the vantage point of the mythical consciousness of the Muslim World. When Arkoun talks about the myth, he is saying the same thing that Iqbal said – that although Islam appeared in the pre-scientific age, it heralded the scientific age. And even until today, we have not entered the age of science and understanding; we are in the world of magic, of things, and ghosts; but are not yet prepared to enter the world of thoughts and the world of facts. Who will diagnose our disease? Who can discover the virus that causes this condition of ours? Such questions keep pressing on me. But your question about violence has been the longest, and it is right that my answer should be the longest. Some used to ask me: How do you believe in non-violence? Don't you see how democracy was snatched from the Algerians who succeeded in the elections, but were deprived of enjoying the result of their success; so what alternative can they resort to but violence? And I used to reply that they forgot the Iranian Revolution – the Iranians won without ballot-boxes; they won by facing the soldiers with flowers and roses. But can we ever analyze the two events, the Algerian and the Iranian? We can only say that the events do not come under science, and cannot be explained; what happened was a miracle, outside the laws and science and knowledge. But what is violence achieving for Algeria at this moment? What did people do to face the soldiers in Iran? They did not face him with flowers as a gesture of admiration, but as a form of challenge: they challenged violence with non-violence, the same form adopted by Adam's son. But the Iranians did not show pride in their achievement. Jesus says in the Bible: "Who of you would light a lamp, and then place it under a measure; it must be placed in a high place, so that all people can see it." The Iranians should have placed their non-violent way in the light, so that all people may be able to see it, but they placed it under a measure, so that we need to grope for it in the darkness, a darkness that is surrounding it on all sides. I feel great pain and regret that such a creative and innovative action, such futuristic and scientific feat be ignored in this way. It should have been displayed in every possible way, to be illustrated with audio-visual media, and brought to the notice of everybody in the world. Like all other endeavours in the Muslim World, this revolution has not received the attention it deserves. Malik bin Nabi once wrote: "That sickly fondness in the Muslim World of force, to which it clings with all its might, has blocked its way to perceiving the value of knowledge and the value of ideas. Ideas indeed are the real treasure of the ummah (the Muslim nation)." He set up Germany as an example: it lost the war, and so it lost all its material world, but its intellectual world was intact, and in this way it was able to rebuild its material world without loss of time. While, Malik adds, in the Muslim World, the intellectual world is in a state of barrenness. That is why it lives in the material world, and has not yet entered the intellectual world. Well, when Abdul-Jabbar asks me: "Does Jawdat Sa'eed call to an inactivation of jihad, an enjoined command of God, even if all its conditions are met?" I reverse the question and ask: Would Mr. Rifa'ee resort to fighting should all problems be solvable without fighting? What is the meaning of rushd? What is the meaning of democracy? It means that all the parties agree that the political issue will not be resolved with violence. Democracy will not enter a country in which people believe in the validity or necessity of realizing rule through violence. Do we need to remind the reader of what we said above, that belief which is realized with compulsion is not belief, and disbelief that is realized through compulsion is not disbelief? The world now is the world of the big shots; those big parties cannot solve their problems with violence. This fact is a huge one, but the Muslim World does not appreciate it. In the same way, the members of the world of the small cannot solve their problems with violence. It should be manifest to us that the First and Second Gulf Wars have not solved any problem; they have only brought loss to all fighting parties; only the world of the big has reaped profits from our wars, selling their ware at exorbitant princes. The lesson we need to learn from the two Gulf wars is not to repeat those wars we call jihad in the way of God, which we assume to have fulfilled all the conditions of legitimate jihad. Can we say further that to conquer America, we need not to attack it with fighting, but to invade it intellectually. I was once asked: "What do you say of America?" I said: "America is calling, Come, take me, convince me and I am yours." But how to convince America? Shall we say to the Americans: "Come, worship our leaders as we worship them?" In fact Islam is still finding its way to all human societies by its inherent persuasiveness, in spite of all our disagreeableness; it is we that repel people from the way of God. God bless Malik bin Nabi – he used to say: "Water will run downhill, and when it is in the valley, it cannot irrigate the higher levels. When we do not have viable thoughts, and when we do not have solutions for the other world, how can we expect to convert it to our way of thinking? The others solve their problems not with mythical thinking, but with science. If you wish to invade the others at present, what you need is not missiles, but the human being who has more viable ideas, and who does not worship idols. Let the bones of the Khawarej in their graves take notice that the whole Muslim World has converted to their school of thought, that the conditions for jihad are the same for us as they are for the Khawarej: that you believe you are in the right, and you charge the other with disbelief, even if he happens to be Ali bin Abi Taleb (the Prophet's cousin and the fourth caliph), and then you assassinate him. So what more can I say? It seems that we are still in need of more wars and blood and pain in order to believe that it is history which teaches people, for, as the saying goes, he is wretched who learns only when the disaster hits him, and he is happy who learns when he sees the disaster hitting another. It seems that people will not learn from what befalls other people; that is why the Qur'an mentions the perishing of many peoples and does not mention that any of the peoples, except for the people of Jonas, learned and therefore were spared perdition. But even so, the sheer multiplicity of disasters will lead people to learn. I hope that two Gulf wars are enough, that we do not need a third one. I hope that the other disasters are enough. Indeed, unless history is recognized as a source of knowledge, we will not escape its punishments, as the Qur'an says: " Such is the chastisement of your Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement (11, 102)," and " They will not believe in it until they see the grievous penalty (26, 201)." So we will learn. I do admit that I, and we, do not yet have the words which are equal to the issues we are handling; therefore, I do not blame those who do not understand me. I blame myself first and foremost. We have not yet learnt the telling expression. But things are not so far off; I have a feeling that many Muslim minds begin to mature as a result of all those excruciating pains inflicted on us. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 29 122 121 2009-08-23T10:24:13Z Admin 1 moved [[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] to [[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q.6: Jawdat Sa'eed confers on Muhammad Iqbal's thought such a distinguished status. So what is so original about Iqbal? In what way has he laid the bases for a new system? What is his impact on current Arab thought?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A.6: It is not easy to bring together what I have to say about Iqbal. What most attracted me to him is that he was firm in his belief, that he believed deeply, and it showed in his behavior. And besides his solid belief, he had a profound and extensive understanding of the current world, the understanding of an original philosopher. It always amazed me how the two sides thrived side by side in the same mind. As I felt the urgency of combining science and faith together in coming to terms with our dilemmas, I felt that Muhammad Iqbal had both in the highest degree, in a way that I could not find in any other person, and both aspects were solidly established in his character. He was well-informed about the Islamic heritage; he had a thorough knowledge there; and he was quite present, quite at home with what went on in the world, conversant in several languages. You do not often come across a man like that in the Muslim World. What we usually have in the Muslim World is a person specializing in Islamic heritage, but not knowledgeable about modernity, or vise versa; and that of course is our weakness. But Muhammad Iqbal well understood the importance of both sides. He was an original thinker about the science of tawheed, the Islamic faith (the modern theology that Arkoun very much harps on); he was an original sufi, mystic, who knew what to take and what to leave; he was an original jurist, who had some ingenious views in the sphere of dealings. We do not find anyone to take up what Iqbal contributed, to substantiate and elaborate it. He was quite aware of the novelty of his ideas, and he was also aware that people did not understand him, that he was burning alone, like a candle. He felt that he had set the tone for a poet that did not yet pick up from where he left; he felt that it was a rare deer that he had left behind, and that the hunter who would catch that deer had not yet appeared. In brief, he felt that his ideas were for the future, that there was no Muslim yet who was ready to pay the price to buy the Joseph left behind by Iqbal. But he felt sure at the same time, as he said at the end of his collection, The Book of Secrets and Symbols, that what he sowed would produce some time later a field that would be splendid to observe. As for his influence on modern Islamic though, it is quite little, particularly in the Arab World. All people understand is that he was a poet that praised Islam; he complained: they take me for one of the poets, and they tell me, 'Eulogize this man', 'Satirize this man'; they do not understand me. In this way we understand why Hamilton Jibb said of him in his book: Modern Trends in Islam: "He understood Islam in a new and unprecedented way, but his calls were cries in the wilderness, or blows in the ashes. There was no one to understand him or to respond to his calls." One would come across quite a few who say they admire his praise of Islam; but all have reservations concerning him; all those responsible for the young caution their followers against him, saying that he had extreme sufi views, or unacceptable legal rulings. They dread his referring to history and experience in judging civilizations; they dread his attitude to shari'ah, the Divine law, when he says that the rulings of shari'ah may be reconsidered in the light of experience. In sum, his innovations have been submerged in ambiguity and skepticism. Most of those who claim to know something about him do not really understand him; they have not invested enough time to exploring his depth. The world as he saw it was different from what others saw. He said: Our ka'bah (the holy cube of Mecca) is replete with idols; disbelief makes fun of our Islam; our sheikh has bet on Islam, favoring the idols; our mufti sells his fatwa for some money; our preacher has his sight fixed at the idols' home; they have wasted the purity of Mecca. Iqbal said that there was need for a fresh Islamic theory which recognized the continuous creation: taking note of the world's tireless evolution and expansion. And he noted that one of the basic principles of the Qur'an was that communities were brought to account collectively in this world. He took the verse of the Qur'an, 'To every people is a term,' (7:34) to be an example of historical judgments, that in its aphoristic brevity it indicated the possibility of studying human groups scientifically, as organisms. The attention given to history in the Qur'an as a source of knowledge was not casual or in passing. It really laid the basis for very deep historical study. He connects tawheed, the unity of God, to the unity of the whole world. It is the basis for a scientific principle that directs believers to show obedience to God, rather than to thrones and crowns. He also discusses the stagnation that cripples Islamic thought. He cites the controversy concerning the 'oldness' of the Qur'an; he also mentions Sufism, mysticism, how it blocked people's visions of Islam as a social constitution. He notes how the traditional scholars were alarmed at the fall of Baghdad, apprehensive that it would lead to social dissolution; therefore they focused all their efforts on one thing: to maintain a uniform social life that applied to all classes of people; they most jealously denied any form of reformation in legislation. That precaution was designed to protect the social system, which was their first concern. And they had some justification there, for a rigid system would resist dissolution. They failed to see, however, as our modern scholars do, that the destiny of a people did not depend on a system as it depended on the caliber and solidity of individuals; that a community which was dominated by disciplinarian ways would result in the individual's completely dissolving; he would pick up all the social values around him, but he would lose his soul. From this it transpires that the unrealistic veneration of past history is not the remedy for a people's dissolution. The only panacea for dissolution is to have individuals with strong individuality; only individuals like this will have in their character the depth of life, and it is individuals like that who are capable of announcing unconventional views, which will prove that the inherited legacy is not at all a taboo to contradict. (The above is adapted from chapters five and six of Iqbal's Reconstruction of the Religious Thought in Islam.) It may be noted that what we have here is a quite unconventional way of discussion. I reflected long on such passages, and I detected a shaking up of our inherited legacy, of the things that the ancestors thought and then assumed that what they had thought was revealed by God; but I realized that that legacy was not inviolable. We have not absorbed Muhammad Iqbal's thought; to absorb and digest it requires that one dedicates a long time to that; his intellectual stature is not to be taken lightly. We need to devote to him many debates and studies. Only then can we reap the fruit of his ideas; elaborate and expand them. I am sure that future generations will be awakened to his contributions, that his innovative notions will win the respect and acceptance they deserve. There will be a lot of studies on him and his achievements. His is one of the great minds that dedicated themselves to the service of Islam. May God grace him with His favor. He really uplifted my life, and illuminated my mind with the profundity of his faith and the vastness of his learning. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 121 50 2009-08-23T10:23:59Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q.6: Jawdat Sa'eed confers on Muhammad Iqbal's thought such a distinguished status. So what is so original about Iqbal? In what way has he laid the bases for a new system? What is his impact on current Arab thought?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A.6: It is not easy to bring together what I have to say about Iqbal. What most attracted me to him is that he was firm in his belief, that he believed deeply, and it showed in his behavior. And besides his solid belief, he had a profound and extensive understanding of the current world, the understanding of an original philosopher. It always amazed me how the two sides thrived side by side in the same mind. As I felt the urgency of combining science and faith together in coming to terms with our dilemmas, I felt that Muhammad Iqbal had both in the highest degree, in a way that I could not find in any other person, and both aspects were solidly established in his character. He was well-informed about the Islamic heritage; he had a thorough knowledge there; and he was quite present, quite at home with what went on in the world, conversant in several languages. You do not often come across a man like that in the Muslim World. What we usually have in the Muslim World is a person specializing in Islamic heritage, but not knowledgeable about modernity, or vise versa; and that of course is our weakness. But Muhammad Iqbal well understood the importance of both sides. He was an original thinker about the science of tawheed, the Islamic faith (the modern theology that Arkoun very much harps on); he was an original sufi, mystic, who knew what to take and what to leave; he was an original jurist, who had some ingenious views in the sphere of dealings. We do not find anyone to take up what Iqbal contributed, to substantiate and elaborate it. He was quite aware of the novelty of his ideas, and he was also aware that people did not understand him, that he was burning alone, like a candle. He felt that he had set the tone for a poet that did not yet pick up from where he left; he felt that it was a rare deer that he had left behind, and that the hunter who would catch that deer had not yet appeared. In brief, he felt that his ideas were for the future, that there was no Muslim yet who was ready to pay the price to buy the Joseph left behind by Iqbal. But he felt sure at the same time, as he said at the end of his collection, The Book of Secrets and Symbols, that what he sowed would produce some time later a field that would be splendid to observe. As for his influence on modern Islamic though, it is quite little, particularly in the Arab World. All people understand is that he was a poet that praised Islam; he complained: they take me for one of the poets, and they tell me, 'Eulogize this man', 'Satirize this man'; they do not understand me. In this way we understand why Hamilton Jibb said of him in his book: Modern Trends in Islam: "He understood Islam in a new and unprecedented way, but his calls were cries in the wilderness, or blows in the ashes. There was no one to understand him or to respond to his calls." One would come across quite a few who say they admire his praise of Islam; but all have reservations concerning him; all those responsible for the young caution their followers against him, saying that he had extreme sufi views, or unacceptable legal rulings. They dread his referring to history and experience in judging civilizations; they dread his attitude to shari'ah, the Divine law, when he says that the rulings of shari'ah may be reconsidered in the light of experience. In sum, his innovations have been submerged in ambiguity and skepticism. Most of those who claim to know something about him do not really understand him; they have not invested enough time to exploring his depth. The world as he saw it was different from what others saw. He said: Our ka'bah (the holy cube of Mecca) is replete with idols; disbelief makes fun of our Islam; our sheikh has bet on Islam, favoring the idols; our mufti sells his fatwa for some money; our preacher has his sight fixed at the idols' home; they have wasted the purity of Mecca. Iqbal said that there was need for a fresh Islamic theory which recognized the continuous creation: taking note of the world's tireless evolution and expansion. And he noted that one of the basic principles of the Qur'an was that communities were brought to account collectively in this world. He took the verse of the Qur'an, 'To every people is a term,' (7:34) to be an example of historical judgments, that in its aphoristic brevity it indicated the possibility of studying human groups scientifically, as organisms. The attention given to history in the Qur'an as a source of knowledge was not casual or in passing. It really laid the basis for very deep historical study. He connects tawheed, the unity of God, to the unity of the whole world. It is the basis for a scientific principle that directs believers to show obedience to God, rather than to thrones and crowns. He also discusses the stagnation that cripples Islamic thought. He cites the controversy concerning the 'oldness' of the Qur'an; he also mentions Sufism, mysticism, how it blocked people's visions of Islam as a social constitution. He notes how the traditional scholars were alarmed at the fall of Baghdad, apprehensive that it would lead to social dissolution; therefore they focused all their efforts on one thing: to maintain a uniform social life that applied to all classes of people; they most jealously denied any form of reformation in legislation. That precaution was designed to protect the social system, which was their first concern. And they had some justification there, for a rigid system would resist dissolution. They failed to see, however, as our modern scholars do, that the destiny of a people did not depend on a system as it depended on the caliber and solidity of individuals; that a community which was dominated by disciplinarian ways would result in the individual's completely dissolving; he would pick up all the social values around him, but he would lose his soul. From this it transpires that the unrealistic veneration of past history is not the remedy for a people's dissolution. The only panacea for dissolution is to have individuals with strong individuality; only individuals like this will have in their character the depth of life, and it is individuals like that who are capable of announcing unconventional views, which will prove that the inherited legacy is not at all a taboo to contradict. (The above is adapted from chapters five and six of Iqbal's Reconstruction of the Religious Thought in Islam.) It may be noted that what we have here is a quite unconventional way of discussion. I reflected long on such passages, and I detected a shaking up of our inherited legacy, of the things that the ancestors thought and then assumed that what they had thought was revealed by God; but I realized that that legacy was not inviolable. We have not absorbed Muhammad Iqbal's thought; to absorb and digest it requires that one dedicates a long time to that; his intellectual stature is not to be taken lightly. We need to devote to him many debates and studies. Only then can we reap the fruit of his ideas; elaborate and expand them. I am sure that future generations will be awakened to his contributions, that his innovative notions will win the respect and acceptance they deserve. There will be a lot of studies on him and his achievements. His is one of the great minds that dedicated themselves to the service of Islam. May God grace him with His favor. He really uplifted my life, and illuminated my mind with the profundity of his faith and the vastness of his learning. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 50 2009-05-06T08:50:54Z Admin 1 Created page with '==Jawdat Sa'eed has assigned to Muhammad Iqbal's thought a supreme status, asserting that there is in his philosophy a lot of innovation...== '''What are the basic tenets of Iqba...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==Jawdat Sa'eed has assigned to Muhammad Iqbal's thought a supreme status, asserting that there is in his philosophy a lot of innovation...== '''What are the basic tenets of Iqbal's project? What are his influences on Modern Islamic thought, particularly in the Arab World?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} What can one say about Muhammad Iqbal? The main thing that attracted me to him is that he was a staunch and firm believer, with a very devout heart. Besides that fact, he had thorough and profound conception of the current world in its philosophical foundations. I used to wonder how integrated these two currents were in the mind of that man – and we needed badly that blending of science and faith. I longed to find that, and found it in the character of Muhammad Iqbal; I could not think of any other person who had the two currents so distinctly and firmly: his background in the Islamic heritage was quite thorough and assured, and he had seen modernism in its most representative circles, and in its various tongues. Such type was quite rare among Muslims, and even today those who are familiar with the Islamic heritage know little about the modern world, and those who are at home with the modern concepts are nowhere in the Islamic legacy. This is our trouble up to the present, but that was not so in the case of Iqbal, for he was aware of both dimensions: he could speak authoritatively and innovatively about theology, adapted to the modern life, in a way that Muhammad Arkoun longed for and could not realize. In mysticism, he was also an innovator, capable of sorting the valuable from the worthless; so was he in Islamic law, for he could think with originality on certain topics of dealings from an Islamic jurisprudence aspect. Unfortunately, there has been no one who supported and elaborated the foundations that Iqbal has laid, and he did realize that fact: he deplored that people did not appreciate his thought, that he was like a candle in the dark, that his ideas were like deer that no hunter seemed able to catch. In one verse of his, he said: I feel bored with the ancient company; I've set my flame on my Mount of Tur, waiting for a Moses to descry. He used to say that he was a voice, and his poet would appear later in the future, that he was a Joseph that found no bidder to buy in the Muslims' market. At the end of his verse collection Secrets and Symbols he wrote that if it were possible for him to rise from the grave some time in the future, he would find a land that was a delight to live in. As for his impact on the modern Islamic thought, and especially in the Arab World, it has been minimal. People scarcely understood him – they took him to be another poet eulogizing Islam, and Islam is in no need of a eulogy. He sensed that, for he said: "Some would take me for a poet; they would say: "Write a panegyric of this, and a vituperation of that – it is so for they fail to get my point." In his book The Modern Trends in Islam, the British Orientalist Hamilton Jibb has written about Iqbal: "He has a new and unprecedented conception of Islam, but his cries have gone unheeded." Some people do say that he was a great lover of Islam, but they one and all do object to him, and they scare the youth of him, on the grounds that he had mystic excesses or legal views that are not in line with mainstream Islam. They were repelled by his acceptance of history and the outcomes of historical events as a criterion in judging civilizations; they were scared of his conception of shari'ah, that its rulings may be reconsidered in view of the lessons of history. In short, his innovative thought has remained under a cloud, doubted and distrusted. Very few people have tried to devote the necessary time to probing his ideas and fathoming his philosophy. He descried a different world – he would say: Our Ka'aba (of Mecca) is full of idols, and disbelief can well laugh at our Islam; our sheikh is gambling on Islam for his love of idols – he would sell his fatwa, and our missionary would look with envy at the idols' house. They have wasted the purity of Mecca. Iqbal also said: "My line of though leads me to assert continuous creation, that the universe is in a state of increase and growth." One of his conclusions was that according to the Qur'an, communities are brought to account as a whole. Also about communities he commented on a verse from the Qur'an " To every people is a term appointed (7, 34)," that this verse represented one of the historical laws … in its very condense phrase, it affirmed that social communities might be studied scientifically, as organisms. Elsewhere he said: The Qur'an's attention of history, as a source of human knowledge, goes much farther than taking it to be historical instructions. The Qur'an lays down one of the most fundamental principles of the philosophy of history. He says: Any earnest investigation of culture can find in the principle of tawheed 'Oneness of God' a basis for a unification of the whole world; and Islam, as a political constitution, is no more than a practical means for making such basis operative in people's intellectual and emotional life; it is so since it demands allegiance and loyalty to God, rather than to crowns and thrones. When he handles the ossification and rigidity in the Islamic thought he refers to the dispute concerning the Qur'an's being old 'i.e. eternal' or new 'i.e. not eternal', and refers to mysticism, which, as he points out, blocked people's sight from Islam as a social constitution. The fall of Baghdad, according to Iqbal, led the conservative religious scholars to "focus all their efforts on the one point of preserving a uniform social life for the people by a jealous exclusion of all innovations in the law of Shari'a as expounded by the early doctors of Islam. Their leading idea was social order, and there is no doubt that they were partly right, because organization does to a certain extent counteract the forces of decay. But they did not see, and our modern Ulema (scholars) do not see, that the ultimate fate of a people does not depend so much on organization as on the worth and power of individual men. In the over-organized society the individual is altogether crushed out of existence. He gains the whole wealth of social thought around him and loses his own soul. Thus a false reverence for past history and its artificial resurrection constitute no remedy for a people's decay … the only effective power, therefore, that counteracts the forces of decay in a people is the rearing of self-concentrated individuals. Such individuals alone reveal the depth of life. They disclose new standards in the light of which we begin to see that our environment is not wholly inviolable and requires revision." (From: Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Chapters Five and Six, viz. The Spirit of Muslim Culture, and The Principle of Movement in the Structure of Islam.) It was a new approach to things, and I pondered long over this way of analyzing the situation – I detected in this method a shaking up of our way of thinking, and a ruling out of our idolization of the environment, including what people attribute to God – I saw that this environment was not necessarily too sacred to be changed. But up to the present day, we have not invested in Muhammad Iqbal's thought. We need to reflect long on his work to perceive the dimensions of his thought, and we need to make of his ideas the subject-matter of prolonged discussions and debates, until those ideas become incorporated into our minds, and then are developed and elaborated and deepened. Later generations will have more respect for his intellectual adventures and aspirations; there will be more studies of his work and his merits. He is an extraordinary mind, and he dedicated his energy to the service of Islam – may Allah bless Iqbal with His favour. May his name be remembered for ever, for he revived my life, and illuminated my imagination with the power of his faith and his erudition. He is a landmark and a lighthouse on the way of Islam and mankind. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 30 125 124 2009-08-23T10:30:45Z Admin 1 moved [[The challenge of globalization]] to [[7: The challenge of globalization]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 7: Globalization seems to be a new mask worn by the Western civilization. So how can we guard our cultural identity? How can we preserve our independent character so that we do not get dissolved in this new call to globalization?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 7: Before I take up this question seven, let me make it clear again that my answers are not final, nor comprehensive. On the other hand, one should not be appalled by the complexity of terms, nor by some peripheral and minor aspects drawn by some individuals from great ideas to serve mean purposes. Indeed, great ideas and knowledge do eventually much good to man. It maybe true what a certain Muslim scholar had in mind when he said: "We sought to acquire knowledge for other than God, but it would not be for other than God." Now, as for globalization, it must lead to God, Lord of all mankind; no one but Allah is the Lord of all people. No nation can monopolize globalization, for it is a process that is bound to happen. The prophets all come from God; they all direct men to God, and their messages are in perfect harmony. At the same time, we all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No man is to be raised over any other except in so far as he works for the good of mankind, all mankind. In the end, it is only what is good for people that will stay and resist perdition (ref. to the Qur'an, 13:17) For eons of time men did not know of the other peoples in their scattered habitats. And then things changed; people began to know of the existence of other people, contemporaries and old. Now, there is no niche on the earth but is known, and no small group of people but is known. Man is now working for exploring the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. It may be noted that no matter how narrow and self-centered the purpose of the person or persons who first made a great discovery was, that discovery was eventually put in the service of all mankind, a global good. That is true for instance of the domesticating of animals, the discovery of agriculture and the discovery of writing. Writing was originally confined to small groups of people; pre-Islam Arabs were not commonly literate, and they did not have books. The introduction of writing on earth is the real beginning of history, and the starting point for turning to account human intellectual faculty. Even the internet was first devised by the Pentagon to facilitate contact and the exchange of data among its personnel, but soon it was global, and for the good of all mankind, in a way that no one can now monopolize it, or exploit it to the exclusion of others. All this is true of globalization: those who wish that globalization will allot some benefits to some people can wish what they like, but we should rise to the level of not letting others exploit us. One of the greatest things propounded and taught by the prophets is that man cannot be exploited or subdued except with his own consent, by just sticking to his ignorance. Once he is enlightened, once he has acquired knowledge, no one can exploit him or subjugate him. Hence, the main purpose of the prophets' mission is to spread knowledge, and not to keep it monopolized by a limited group. The needed techniques are now globally available; information is now accessible everywhere. It is not the others who now hold back knowledge or information; it is indeed we who dread the influx of information; we dread to be told what is happening in the world. In this we are gravely mistaken, for our only salvation is through knowledge and through reading, reading without any limits. So you see that things are there for us to put to our use, but it is Muslims who hold back from entering the realm of knowledge. Can you really perceive the intensity of darkness and disorientation we suffer from? We seek to protect ourselves by secluding ourselves from the world. Knowledge itself spreads freely everywhere, and has entered every home, but we still dread it and refuse to admit it. It is we ourselves that choose to keep ourselves and to keep our people in the dark. The solution is not to be scared of knowledge and thought, and not to be scared of disbelief. We seem at present to take an active intellect to be not unlike a disbelieving mind; that is why we dread thinking in the same way that we dread disbelief, while disbelief is no more than the lack of knowledge and sound thinking. We see things to be the opposite of what they are, all because of our ignorance. Jesus Christ said: "You will know the truth, and the truth will liberate you." Knowledge is power, and it is liberation; knowledge is global, and we have to enter that realm. No one will be the object of exploitation but the ignorant, so when will the Muslim World learn not to be scared of knowledge, and of being present in the world? And especially now, where can one hide himself from what is taking place; the world is a small village now, so where can we hide ourselves? Do we insist on mimicking the ostrich which is said to hide its head in the sand to protect itself from its enemies? But that is not the way to safety. The way is by boldly entering the realm of knowledge, by being witnesses of what goes on in the world. I know that there was a time when the Muslim scholars encountered new knowledge by turning their backs to it, but that is just not possible in the face of the explosion of knowledge that surrounds us. I do admit that I do not have the eloquence that is necessary for such topics, for exposing the idols that block our way to acquiring knowledge. Knowledge protects itself from corruption; it is as Malek Bennabi once said: "When science accepts nothing short of truth, it fulfils the conditions of morality." Knowledge does not tolerate errors; it will work tirelessly until mistakes are corrected. No one should suppose that science is an adversary to ethics: Ethics grows as a result of more science, it thrives on knowledge and experience. But when science was separated from ethics, ethics became chains and a hurdle in the way. The truth is that science demonstrates the outcome of behavior, good or bad, and when morality is divorced from science, it will be an aping of other people's behavior, the way of clinging fast to what has lost its justification, and has become something of the past. The behavior of the ignorant will backfire, causing him to be an utter loser; backwardness will have its toll; it will come in the form of a scourge from God, driving men to see and understand, whether they like it or not. And once something becomes a science it will have become universal. This applies to Islam. When we understand Islam as a science, it will be for all nations. That is why both Islam and science emerged concomitantly, and people must believe in both in the same way. Therefore, those who scare us of science and knowledge with a view to protecting our belief, are really supporting polytheism, without meaning to. Abraham, peace be upon him, teaches us not to be scared; he said, as the Qur'an tells us: "How should I fear the beings ye associate with God, when ye fear not to give partners to God without any warrant having been given to you? It is those who believe and confuse not their beliefs with wrong – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance." (6:81-82). We had better reflect on the above verses: a believer should be distinguished for good guidance. I call on believers and all men to realize that to hinder knowledge from reaching men is really supporting darkness, disbelief and persecution. As we read in a tradition of the Prophet's, peace be upon him: "Injustice comes back on its perpetrators as darkness on the Day of Judgment." It is relevant here to contrast the behavior of prophets and that of their peoples. The prophets endeavored to spread knowledge and light; the antagonistic peoples dreaded knowledge and light. Our plight at present is seen in that those who have science and knowledge would like to hold them back, and are apprehensive of their spread to other parts of the world; they endeavor to retard the spread of science and knowledge. This is what happens when those who have science and knowledge are unbelievers; a believer, in contrast, loves, as the prophets did, to give light and knowledge. But let us not worry, for it is God's will that light will spread, as one sees in several verses of the Qur'an; indeed God's light will reach every spot in the world. "Their intention is to extinguish God's Light, by blowing with their mouths; but God will complete the revelation of His Light, even though the unbelievers may detest it;" (61:8) "Fain would they extinguish God's Light with their mouths, but God will not allow but that His Light should be perfected, even though the unbelievers may detest;" (9:32). My affirmation that light will spread everywhere in the world is not just because I believe in the unseen, but because I see its manifestation in the concrete world; I see its manifestation in God's Signs in the near and far regions of the world, and in the world of souls. The truth has come to surface, and even if we fail to embrace it, God will cause other human beings to embrace the truth and support it; the Qur'an will have its supporters, with or without us. There will be those, as the Qur'an tells us (5:54) who love God, as He loves them, who love God's creatures, and protect them, for they are God's family; they will be nearer to God than we are. Let it be said also that democracy is nearer to God and His Apostle than the conditions of Muslims at present; let it be said that it is not Muslims who uphold democracy and denounce of taghoots (trespassers beyond all bounds, tyrants); it is not they who have brought that to the world, nor are they capable even after democracy has taken root of adopting it at present. It is other nations who bask in the blessing of democracy, and it is others who have the power to dominate us. So how long will it take us to open our eyes; how long will there be locks on our minds? How long shall we go on having scales over our eyes, and shackles that detain us from moving? But, let me repeat, God's light is coming! Have I answered your question? I hope at least in part. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 124 52 2009-08-23T10:25:36Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 7: Globalization seems to be a new mask worn by the Western civilization. So how can we guard our cultural identity? How can we preserve our independent character so that we do not get dissolved in this new call to globalization?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 7: Before I take up this question seven, let me make it clear again that my answers are not final, nor comprehensive. On the other hand, one should not be appalled by the complexity of terms, nor by some peripheral and minor aspects drawn by some individuals from great ideas to serve mean purposes. Indeed, great ideas and knowledge do eventually much good to man. It maybe true what a certain Muslim scholar had in mind when he said: "We sought to acquire knowledge for other than God, but it would not be for other than God." Now, as for globalization, it must lead to God, Lord of all mankind; no one but Allah is the Lord of all people. No nation can monopolize globalization, for it is a process that is bound to happen. The prophets all come from God; they all direct men to God, and their messages are in perfect harmony. At the same time, we all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from dust. No man is to be raised over any other except in so far as he works for the good of mankind, all mankind. In the end, it is only what is good for people that will stay and resist perdition (ref. to the Qur'an, 13:17) For eons of time men did not know of the other peoples in their scattered habitats. And then things changed; people began to know of the existence of other people, contemporaries and old. Now, there is no niche on the earth but is known, and no small group of people but is known. Man is now working for exploring the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. It may be noted that no matter how narrow and self-centered the purpose of the person or persons who first made a great discovery was, that discovery was eventually put in the service of all mankind, a global good. That is true for instance of the domesticating of animals, the discovery of agriculture and the discovery of writing. Writing was originally confined to small groups of people; pre-Islam Arabs were not commonly literate, and they did not have books. The introduction of writing on earth is the real beginning of history, and the starting point for turning to account human intellectual faculty. Even the internet was first devised by the Pentagon to facilitate contact and the exchange of data among its personnel, but soon it was global, and for the good of all mankind, in a way that no one can now monopolize it, or exploit it to the exclusion of others. All this is true of globalization: those who wish that globalization will allot some benefits to some people can wish what they like, but we should rise to the level of not letting others exploit us. One of the greatest things propounded and taught by the prophets is that man cannot be exploited or subdued except with his own consent, by just sticking to his ignorance. Once he is enlightened, once he has acquired knowledge, no one can exploit him or subjugate him. Hence, the main purpose of the prophets' mission is to spread knowledge, and not to keep it monopolized by a limited group. The needed techniques are now globally available; information is now accessible everywhere. It is not the others who now hold back knowledge or information; it is indeed we who dread the influx of information; we dread to be told what is happening in the world. In this we are gravely mistaken, for our only salvation is through knowledge and through reading, reading without any limits. So you see that things are there for us to put to our use, but it is Muslims who hold back from entering the realm of knowledge. Can you really perceive the intensity of darkness and disorientation we suffer from? We seek to protect ourselves by secluding ourselves from the world. Knowledge itself spreads freely everywhere, and has entered every home, but we still dread it and refuse to admit it. It is we ourselves that choose to keep ourselves and to keep our people in the dark. The solution is not to be scared of knowledge and thought, and not to be scared of disbelief. We seem at present to take an active intellect to be not unlike a disbelieving mind; that is why we dread thinking in the same way that we dread disbelief, while disbelief is no more than the lack of knowledge and sound thinking. We see things to be the opposite of what they are, all because of our ignorance. Jesus Christ said: "You will know the truth, and the truth will liberate you." Knowledge is power, and it is liberation; knowledge is global, and we have to enter that realm. No one will be the object of exploitation but the ignorant, so when will the Muslim World learn not to be scared of knowledge, and of being present in the world? And especially now, where can one hide himself from what is taking place; the world is a small village now, so where can we hide ourselves? Do we insist on mimicking the ostrich which is said to hide its head in the sand to protect itself from its enemies? But that is not the way to safety. The way is by boldly entering the realm of knowledge, by being witnesses of what goes on in the world. I know that there was a time when the Muslim scholars encountered new knowledge by turning their backs to it, but that is just not possible in the face of the explosion of knowledge that surrounds us. I do admit that I do not have the eloquence that is necessary for such topics, for exposing the idols that block our way to acquiring knowledge. Knowledge protects itself from corruption; it is as Malek Bennabi once said: "When science accepts nothing short of truth, it fulfils the conditions of morality." Knowledge does not tolerate errors; it will work tirelessly until mistakes are corrected. No one should suppose that science is an adversary to ethics: Ethics grows as a result of more science, it thrives on knowledge and experience. But when science was separated from ethics, ethics became chains and a hurdle in the way. The truth is that science demonstrates the outcome of behavior, good or bad, and when morality is divorced from science, it will be an aping of other people's behavior, the way of clinging fast to what has lost its justification, and has become something of the past. The behavior of the ignorant will backfire, causing him to be an utter loser; backwardness will have its toll; it will come in the form of a scourge from God, driving men to see and understand, whether they like it or not. And once something becomes a science it will have become universal. This applies to Islam. When we understand Islam as a science, it will be for all nations. That is why both Islam and science emerged concomitantly, and people must believe in both in the same way. Therefore, those who scare us of science and knowledge with a view to protecting our belief, are really supporting polytheism, without meaning to. Abraham, peace be upon him, teaches us not to be scared; he said, as the Qur'an tells us: "How should I fear the beings ye associate with God, when ye fear not to give partners to God without any warrant having been given to you? It is those who believe and confuse not their beliefs with wrong – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance." (6:81-82). We had better reflect on the above verses: a believer should be distinguished for good guidance. I call on believers and all men to realize that to hinder knowledge from reaching men is really supporting darkness, disbelief and persecution. As we read in a tradition of the Prophet's, peace be upon him: "Injustice comes back on its perpetrators as darkness on the Day of Judgment." It is relevant here to contrast the behavior of prophets and that of their peoples. The prophets endeavored to spread knowledge and light; the antagonistic peoples dreaded knowledge and light. Our plight at present is seen in that those who have science and knowledge would like to hold them back, and are apprehensive of their spread to other parts of the world; they endeavor to retard the spread of science and knowledge. This is what happens when those who have science and knowledge are unbelievers; a believer, in contrast, loves, as the prophets did, to give light and knowledge. But let us not worry, for it is God's will that light will spread, as one sees in several verses of the Qur'an; indeed God's light will reach every spot in the world. "Their intention is to extinguish God's Light, by blowing with their mouths; but God will complete the revelation of His Light, even though the unbelievers may detest it;" (61:8) "Fain would they extinguish God's Light with their mouths, but God will not allow but that His Light should be perfected, even though the unbelievers may detest;" (9:32). My affirmation that light will spread everywhere in the world is not just because I believe in the unseen, but because I see its manifestation in the concrete world; I see its manifestation in God's Signs in the near and far regions of the world, and in the world of souls. The truth has come to surface, and even if we fail to embrace it, God will cause other human beings to embrace the truth and support it; the Qur'an will have its supporters, with or without us. There will be those, as the Qur'an tells us (5:54) who love God, as He loves them, who love God's creatures, and protect them, for they are God's family; they will be nearer to God than we are. Let it be said also that democracy is nearer to God and His Apostle than the conditions of Muslims at present; let it be said that it is not Muslims who uphold democracy and denounce of taghoots (trespassers beyond all bounds, tyrants); it is not they who have brought that to the world, nor are they capable even after democracy has taken root of adopting it at present. It is other nations who bask in the blessing of democracy, and it is others who have the power to dominate us. So how long will it take us to open our eyes; how long will there be locks on our minds? How long shall we go on having scales over our eyes, and shackles that detain us from moving? But, let me repeat, God's light is coming! Have I answered your question? I hope at least in part. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 52 51 2009-05-06T08:52:57Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki ==Globalization is a new mask behind which the Western civilization hides. How can we safeguard our cultural identity...== '''stress our uniqueness and stir our loyalty to face the challenge of globalization?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} I must reiterate that my answers are neither comprehensive nor final. At the same time we must not be apprehensive of terms and manipulations which blur the facts, for there will be some parties who would try to exploit the big ideas and monopolize them for their own interests. However, the big ideas, in their triumphant progress, will eventually be for the good of man. It is perhaps for this reason that a certain scholar said: We started acquiring knowledge for the sake of other than God, but knowledge would not be but for God. Now the word 'globalization' is not something we may choose to have or not have, for it will spread and no barrier can stop its progress. The whole earth is basically one nation, and prophets were sent to all of them; we all are of one nature, physically and biologically; we all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from earth; no human is superior to any other human but in so far as he or she does good for mankind (a reference to a tradition of the Prophet's,) – all mankind and not some portion of it. God is the Lord of all men, and 'that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth' (the Qur'an, 13, 17.) But people are distributed all over the earth, and they did not have any effective communication among their groups in the past – they in many cases did not even realize that other groups and communities existed on the other side. Later, communities did come to know one another, and there is not a group or land that is not known to those who care to know. Scientists are endeavouring now to explore other parts of the universe to check whether there is intelligent life on any other planet or in another galaxy. Now all great discoveries would be utilized by their progenitors to begin with, but such discoveries invariably spread and become a public property – that is the story in the case of domesticating animals, the discovery of agriculture and the discovery of writing. Writing was at one time confined to a small minority, in a way that Pre-Islam Arabs were for the most part an illiterate nation. The beginning of writing is conventionally accepted to mark the beginning of history, the beginning of proper exploitation of human intellectual energy. Even the Internet was started by and for the Pentagon, but it broke loose and was in the service of all mankind, and no one is likely to dominate it or monopolize it for their own interests. Globalization is governed by the same laws, globalization in the sense of organizing the world. It is true that this process will necessitate an international control and dominance, but those who wish globalization to remain the monopoly of some sectors are only dreaming. Therefore, we must not be opposed to globalization – what we should be doing instead is to rise to a level in which no one can exploit us. The greatest truth that the prophets learnt and endeavoured to teach mankind is that a human being cannot be exploited or humiliated except with his consent and through his ignorance. Once he is enlightened with knowledge, no one can exploit or humiliate him – he would not tolerate that. That is why the dissemination of knowledge and not holding it back is the task of the prophets and their legacy. Universal techniques are now at the disposal of man – he now has easy access to information. It is not the others who now hold back knowledge: it is rather we who are scared of information, alarmed of discovering what is going on. But the truth is that our only hope is in knowledge and in reading, reading in the widest sense. It is the Muslim World which blocks the smooth flow of knowledge. We seek to keep hidden by keeping away from the world, and yet knowledge ('ilm in Arabic) has liberated itself – it is entering every home, but we still dig our heels in of our own will, and opt to keep ourselves and our nations in the dark. We should not be scared of thought and knowledge, and we should not be scared of disbelief, but thought seems to scare us to almost the same degree as does disbelief. It is so because we do not realize that disbelief is the result of the absence of thought, and not the other way round. So when shall we understand? When shall we be liberated? Jesus once said: "You know the truth and the truth will liberate you." Knowledge is power, knowledge is freedom, and knowledge is universal: it is through this gate that we must enter the world; only the ignorant can be exploited, so when will the Muslim World learn not to be scared of knowledge, understanding and being there to witness what is going on? Indeed, even if you choose to, you cannot conceal yourself and keep isolated! God's land is no longer big; it has shrunk, and there is no refuge where we can hide from knowledge, and if we stubbornly try to do, so we would be like the proverbial ostrich which hides its head in the sand. But this policy is no longer the way to safety; instead, we need to enter the gate of knowledge, and be there in the world, witnesses of the world. Muslim scholars have for a long time opted to protect themselves by keeping ignorant of things, but that is no longer possible. I say with all the clarity in the world that I do not possess the proper expressiveness to describe what idols obstruct our way to knowledge. Knowledge is self-correcting: it is as Imam Malik, may God bless his soul, once said: "In its keenness to be truthful, 'lim (roughly, knowledge) becomes morality." It is so because knowledge would not stand an error; it must see it put right. And 'ilm is not opposed to ethics; on the contrary, ethics is the result of 'ilm, the fruit of experience and knowledge. It is when 'ilm got separated from ethics that ethics became chains and shackles and misguidance. Proper knowledge is knowledge of the outcomes or consequences; to divorce ethics from knowledge and from outcomes is the misbehaviour for which past peoples were punished (a reference to the Qur'an, 26, 137,) – their clinging to what is outmoded. A Muslim needs to think and rethink of this point as presented in the Qur'an: an ignorant person will be a loser as a result of his ignorance; he will have a scourge that God sends to drive men to seek knowledge. When something becomes a science, it has become a universal property of mankind. That same principle applies to Islam: once we understand it scientifically, Islam has become universal. By reflecting on such principles it will become manifest why both 'ilm and Islam are no longer controlled by the Muslim World: the world will no longer yield but to science, and that is why the Qur'an says: "Say 'Have you any certain knowledge? If so, produce it before us.' " (6, 148). Those who are intent on making us scared of knowledge and science, meaning to protect our faith, are really supporting idolatry. Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him, has taught us not to fear; he did not fear the star because it set (a reference to the Qur'an, 6, 76.) God's servants will have no fear in the future, nor do they grieve over what has gone by (a reference to an expression that occurs 12 times in the Qur'an; see for instance 2, 38: 'whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve,' .) It is Ibrahim, too, who said to his people, as reported in the Qur'an, "How should I fear the beings you associate with Allah, when you do not fear to give partners to Allah without any warrant having been given to you? Which of us two parties has more right to security? Tell me if you know. It is those who believe and do not confuse their beliefs with wrong – wrong being synonymous with darkness – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance, (6, 81-82)." Wakefulness, and vigilance! Muslims, wakefulness and vigilance! keep sharp your ears and your eyes. O man, or mankind! Injustice and disbelief and darkness are uncertainty and a misleading of multitudes, a restraining of knowledge and exploitation of men. The difference between the prophets and their recalcitrant peoples is that the prophets did their utmost to spread knowledge, enlightenment and light, while the others tried their best to perpetuate darkness. They feared the spread of light and knowledge and enlightenment. It is still a disease in the world now that those who know would like to suppress knowledge, and guard against the spread of science and knowledge; they do their best to restrain science and knowledge from reaching all nations. That is the difference between a believer and a disbeliever, the selfish and the unselfish. But yet, God will have full control (a reference to the Qur'an, 11, 21.) So go ahead, enter the gate to meet them; once you are in, victory will be yours (a reference to the Qur'an, 5, 23.) God's light will spread to the whole world: This, too, we learn from the Qur'an: "Allah will not allow but that His Light should be perfected, even though the Unbelievers may detest it, (9, 32). That God will perfect His light is something I believe in, not because I believe in the unseen, but I see its effects in the world. I see it in God's world around me, and in the world of spirits: things have come to surface, so that nothing remains concealed. And even if we fail to fulfill that, God will replace us with others who take up the responsibility, (a reference to the Qur'an, 47, 38.) The Qur'an itself will attract to itself the support of new people. Should we fall back, God will choose others to replace us, and they will behave differently: they will love the Lord of Men more that we do, and will love His creation more, and protect them: they will be closer to God than we are. It must also be said that democracy is nearer to God and His Apostle than the life of present-day Muslims – democracy and rejecting the taghoots have not been discovered or realized by Muslims; democracy was established by other nations. Indeed, even after others have discovered democracy and felt its blessing, Muslims cannot just transfer it to their lands. It is the democratic nations who dominate us. So how much longer shall we close our eyes and have padlocks over our hearts? When can we shake off the heavy loads that weigh us down, and the shackles that impede our movement? People see that our change is far off, but it is not – it is coming soon! Dawn has broken, and darkness is clearing, and chains are falling down. The command of Allah is coming, that is inevitable: do not then seek to hasten it: glory to Him, and He is far above having the partners they ascribe to Him, (reference to the Qur'an, 16, 1.) The last remnant of the wrong-doers will be cut off. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds, (reference to the Qur'an, 6, 45.) So it will come to pass. Well, have I answered your question? I wonder. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 51 2009-05-06T08:52:40Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Globalization is a new mask behind which the Western civilization hides. How can we safeguard our cultural identity...== '''stress our uniqueness and stir our loyalty to face the...' wikitext text/x-wiki Globalization is a new mask behind which the Western civilization hides. How can we safeguard our cultural identity...== '''stress our uniqueness and stir our loyalty to face the challenge of globalization?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} I must reiterate that my answers are neither comprehensive nor final. At the same time we must not be apprehensive of terms and manipulations which blur the facts, for there will be some parties who would try to exploit the big ideas and monopolize them for their own interests. However, the big ideas, in their triumphant progress, will eventually be for the good of man. It is perhaps for this reason that a certain scholar said: We started acquiring knowledge for the sake of other than God, but knowledge would not be but for God. Now the word 'globalization' is not something we may choose to have or not have, for it will spread and no barrier can stop its progress. The whole earth is basically one nation, and prophets were sent to all of them; we all are of one nature, physically and biologically; we all descend from Adam, and Adam was created from earth; no human is superior to any other human but in so far as he or she does good for mankind (a reference to a tradition of the Prophet's,) – all mankind and not some portion of it. God is the Lord of all men, and 'that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth' (the Qur'an, 13, 17.) But people are distributed all over the earth, and they did not have any effective communication among their groups in the past – they in many cases did not even realize that other groups and communities existed on the other side. Later, communities did come to know one another, and there is not a group or land that is not known to those who care to know. Scientists are endeavouring now to explore other parts of the universe to check whether there is intelligent life on any other planet or in another galaxy. Now all great discoveries would be utilized by their progenitors to begin with, but such discoveries invariably spread and become a public property – that is the story in the case of domesticating animals, the discovery of agriculture and the discovery of writing. Writing was at one time confined to a small minority, in a way that Pre-Islam Arabs were for the most part an illiterate nation. The beginning of writing is conventionally accepted to mark the beginning of history, the beginning of proper exploitation of human intellectual energy. Even the Internet was started by and for the Pentagon, but it broke loose and was in the service of all mankind, and no one is likely to dominate it or monopolize it for their own interests. Globalization is governed by the same laws, globalization in the sense of organizing the world. It is true that this process will necessitate an international control and dominance, but those who wish globalization to remain the monopoly of some sectors are only dreaming. Therefore, we must not be opposed to globalization – what we should be doing instead is to rise to a level in which no one can exploit us. The greatest truth that the prophets learnt and endeavoured to teach mankind is that a human being cannot be exploited or humiliated except with his consent and through his ignorance. Once he is enlightened with knowledge, no one can exploit or humiliate him – he would not tolerate that. That is why the dissemination of knowledge and not holding it back is the task of the prophets and their legacy. Universal techniques are now at the disposal of man – he now has easy access to information. It is not the others who now hold back knowledge: it is rather we who are scared of information, alarmed of discovering what is going on. But the truth is that our only hope is in knowledge and in reading, reading in the widest sense. It is the Muslim World which blocks the smooth flow of knowledge. We seek to keep hidden by keeping away from the world, and yet knowledge ('ilm in Arabic) has liberated itself – it is entering every home, but we still dig our heels in of our own will, and opt to keep ourselves and our nations in the dark. We should not be scared of thought and knowledge, and we should not be scared of disbelief, but thought seems to scare us to almost the same degree as does disbelief. It is so because we do not realize that disbelief is the result of the absence of thought, and not the other way round. So when shall we understand? When shall we be liberated? Jesus once said: "You know the truth and the truth will liberate you." Knowledge is power, knowledge is freedom, and knowledge is universal: it is through this gate that we must enter the world; only the ignorant can be exploited, so when will the Muslim World learn not to be scared of knowledge, understanding and being there to witness what is going on? Indeed, even if you choose to, you cannot conceal yourself and keep isolated! God's land is no longer big; it has shrunk, and there is no refuge where we can hide from knowledge, and if we stubbornly try to do, so we would be like the proverbial ostrich which hides its head in the sand. But this policy is no longer the way to safety; instead, we need to enter the gate of knowledge, and be there in the world, witnesses of the world. Muslim scholars have for a long time opted to protect themselves by keeping ignorant of things, but that is no longer possible. I say with all the clarity in the world that I do not possess the proper expressiveness to describe what idols obstruct our way to knowledge. Knowledge is self-correcting: it is as Imam Malik, may God bless his soul, once said: "In its keenness to be truthful, 'lim (roughly, knowledge) becomes morality." It is so because knowledge would not stand an error; it must see it put right. And 'ilm is not opposed to ethics; on the contrary, ethics is the result of 'ilm, the fruit of experience and knowledge. It is when 'ilm got separated from ethics that ethics became chains and shackles and misguidance. Proper knowledge is knowledge of the outcomes or consequences; to divorce ethics from knowledge and from outcomes is the misbehaviour for which past peoples were punished (a reference to the Qur'an, 26, 137,) – their clinging to what is outmoded. A Muslim needs to think and rethink of this point as presented in the Qur'an: an ignorant person will be a loser as a result of his ignorance; he will have a scourge that God sends to drive men to seek knowledge. When something becomes a science, it has become a universal property of mankind. That same principle applies to Islam: once we understand it scientifically, Islam has become universal. By reflecting on such principles it will become manifest why both 'ilm and Islam are no longer controlled by the Muslim World: the world will no longer yield but to science, and that is why the Qur'an says: "Say 'Have you any certain knowledge? If so, produce it before us.' " (6, 148). Those who are intent on making us scared of knowledge and science, meaning to protect our faith, are really supporting idolatry. Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him, has taught us not to fear; he did not fear the star because it set (a reference to the Qur'an, 6, 76.) God's servants will have no fear in the future, nor do they grieve over what has gone by (a reference to an expression that occurs 12 times in the Qur'an; see for instance 2, 38: 'whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve,' .) It is Ibrahim, too, who said to his people, as reported in the Qur'an, "How should I fear the beings you associate with Allah, when you do not fear to give partners to Allah without any warrant having been given to you? Which of us two parties has more right to security? Tell me if you know. It is those who believe and do not confuse their beliefs with wrong – wrong being synonymous with darkness – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance, (6, 81-82)." Wakefulness, and vigilance! Muslims, wakefulness and vigilance! keep sharp your ears and your eyes. O man, or mankind! Injustice and disbelief and darkness are uncertainty and a misleading of multitudes, a restraining of knowledge and exploitation of men. The difference between the prophets and their recalcitrant peoples is that the prophets did their utmost to spread knowledge, enlightenment and light, while the others tried their best to perpetuate darkness. They feared the spread of light and knowledge and enlightenment. It is still a disease in the world now that those who know would like to suppress knowledge, and guard against the spread of science and knowledge; they do their best to restrain science and knowledge from reaching all nations. That is the difference between a believer and a disbeliever, the selfish and the unselfish. But yet, God will have full control (a reference to the Qur'an, 11, 21.) So go ahead, enter the gate to meet them; once you are in, victory will be yours (a reference to the Qur'an, 5, 23.) God's light will spread to the whole world: This, too, we learn from the Qur'an: "Allah will not allow but that His Light should be perfected, even though the Unbelievers may detest it, (9, 32). That God will perfect His light is something I believe in, not because I believe in the unseen, but I see its effects in the world. I see it in God's world around me, and in the world of spirits: things have come to surface, so that nothing remains concealed. And even if we fail to fulfill that, God will replace us with others who take up the responsibility, (a reference to the Qur'an, 47, 38.) The Qur'an itself will attract to itself the support of new people. Should we fall back, God will choose others to replace us, and they will behave differently: they will love the Lord of Men more that we do, and will love His creation more, and protect them: they will be closer to God than we are. It must also be said that democracy is nearer to God and His Apostle than the life of present-day Muslims – democracy and rejecting the taghoots have not been discovered or realized by Muslims; democracy was established by other nations. Indeed, even after others have discovered democracy and felt its blessing, Muslims cannot just transfer it to their lands. It is the democratic nations who dominate us. So how much longer shall we close our eyes and have padlocks over our hearts? When can we shake off the heavy loads that weigh us down, and the shackles that impede our movement? People see that our change is far off, but it is not – it is coming soon! Dawn has broken, and darkness is clearing, and chains are falling down. The command of Allah is coming, that is inevitable: do not then seek to hasten it: glory to Him, and He is far above having the partners they ascribe to Him, (reference to the Qur'an, 16, 1.) The last remnant of the wrong-doers will be cut off. Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds, (reference to the Qur'an, 6, 45.) So it will come to pass. Well, have I answered your question? I wonder. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 31 128 127 2009-08-23T10:34:40Z Admin 1 moved [[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] to [[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 8: One main tenet in your writings is a call to free ourselves of father veneration, raising our ancestors above their human place and accepting their way as infallible. You assert that this idealization of ancestors blocks the way to any new approach to things. The question here is: are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? If so, do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive, without any roots?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 8: Thank you, Mr. al-Rifa'ee. A good question helps engender a good answer; but can I guarantee a good answer? Even if it is not, I am sure questions like yours and answers like mine will help questions and answers to be better and more refined and sophisticated in the future. Future answers will help people get rid of physical suffering and mental anxiety. It seems that I have, in the course of my previous questions, taken care of your question. But in view of the importance of the topic, and the major part veneration of the fathers has in impeding our progress, there is no harm in taking it up, at the risk of some repetition. Indeed, these issues have not been discussed enough, and it will be a long time before justice has been done to them. No, I do not call to giving up the Islamic heritage, nor indeed the heritage of mankind right from the first man that existed on earth, so many millennia before men could read and write. The first men who succeeded in domesticating animals and started agriculture laid the basis for all later development. It is a grave mistake to dismiss them from memory, for in that case we shall have to reproduce the whole process of man's development across his long history. And progress will not stop. Man can learn to intervene in the production of plants; there is nothing indeed to prevent him from learning to artificially produce what plants produce, and so have unlimited quantities of the same fruits and vegetables at his disposal, and with the minimum cost. In the same way as men have outlived the era when horses, mules and donkeys were the means of transport to the era of modern transportation, in the same way as man achieved that which no one would have fancied to be possible just a few generations back, men will, a few generations hence, achieve things that we cannot imagine; for God, as the Qur'an tells us: "adds to creation as He pleases;" (35:1). The verse leaves the door open, and no one may claim it should be closed. To be content with what the ancestors left behind is now suicidal! Must we accept their way of transferring authority? It was an accepted practice in the past to transfer rule with treachery and assassination, and people reveled at it. It happened because it was the way people understood God's 'sunan, laws', but things have changed since. And even now, we still misunderstand the Qur'an when it says: "O God! Lord of Power, Thou givest power to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off power from who Thou pleasest; Thou enduest with honor whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleaesest;" (3:26) but we see how God has enabled some people, who know about His laws and act on them, to themselves give power to whom they please, and strip off power from whoever they please. When we discuss the fathers, we need to determine where they stand. It is right to say for instance that they did not have the knowledge that is now available, they soon fell back for the transfer of authority on treachery, assassination, and crooked ways; all kinds of savagery were justified in the way of capturing the position of ruler. I do realize that this does no go far in replying to your question; but there will be some scholars who can clarify this fogginess. No matter how long it will take the Muslim World to see things for what they are, light will come; what is good for mankind will survive all the froth. But we really must accept the best of the ancestors' deeds and forgive them their ill deeds, as a certain verse of the Qur'an directs us (46:15). We need to understand fully that history does not stop, neither for our forefathers, nor for any other people. There was a time when men slept in the cave and died in their struggle with carnivorous animals; indeed, we have a trace of that in the Qur'an, when Jacob declares to his sons that he is worried that if they take Joseph, the wolf might devour him while they are busy racing. It will not do to let our love and veneration for the ancestors completely block our expanding our understanding; the Qur'an itself reports how ancestors can be a great impediment to development: "They say: 'Nay! We shall follow the ways of our fathers.' What! Even though their fathers were void of wisdom and guidance?" (2:170) The Prophet, peace be upon him, warned one of his companions that it was quite difficult to be a just witness when a dear kin was involved. It is a common thing in judicial procedures that individuals may not be witnesses when a close relative is involved. Indeed, people are mostly quite biased when something concerns a person who is from their own ethnic group or their town or their religion. It is not such a strange thing that all the opponents of prophets always referred to their fathers in rejecting the prophets' call. Although the Qur'an condemns those who follow their fathers blindly, Muslims take this to apply to all other peoples but not themselves. The problem of father idealization is a most trying one, and it is a huge stumbling block for Muslims; they seem to lose all balance when it comes to going beyond the limits of their fathers; hence the confusion of right and wrong. We are commanded by the Qur'an: "O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin;" (4:135) which is a most stern command. The way to deal with the fathers is to measure their behavior and convictions against the laws of history: history will not give respite to those who ignore its laws. It must be a firm conviction of ours that what is good for mankind will be given survival. I have lived through this fascination for the fathers, so have all of us; but it varies from one to one. It may be noted that as time passes, some of that fascination is wearing away, for the veneration had reached such a dimension that it made Muslims incapable of seeking better solutions for their problems. Let me repeat that the same forefathers that we glorify had fought among themselves, had failed to stand for truth, had let falsehood dominate, and had resurrected pre-Islamic ways. But why has all this lingered until today? Why cannot we go beyond the negative aspects in the legacy of the fathers? Why cannot we emulate the perceptiveness of their minds, something that other nations, people who we brand as unbelievers, achieved in doing, and then went beyond the legacy of the ancients? Take for instance the European Union. It is a peaceful, scientific, egalitarian, system; it has been designed and executed with great care; and it is certainly nearer to the commands of God and His Messenger, peace be upon him, and all the wise people in the world, than our disharmony, hostility, and disunity. Are we quite incapable of understanding? Can we not see how our veneration for the fathers impedes our discerning any solutions for our chronic ills? Nonetheless, it may be noted that the severe blows of sectarian struggle in the Muslim World tend to be less excessive as time passes, and they are gradually opening our minds to be more receptive, and our senses to be more sensitive. It was Iqbal who noticed that the world, except for us, got over the complex of the servile attitude to the fathers; Muslims still challenge the whole world, and challenge the facts of history, insisting that God has not, and will not, create any humans like them. I wonder how those who will come later will think of writings like mine, and how they will judge us! History is indeed a very strict judge! But let us pray to the Exalted Lord to make us respond to the events of history! We have already received enough blows, very severe blows; enough to make anyone learn the lesson. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 127 53 2009-08-23T10:34:17Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 8: One main tenet in your writings is a call to free ourselves of father veneration, raising our ancestors above their human place and accepting their way as infallible. You assert that this idealization of ancestors blocks the way to any new approach to things. The question here is: are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? If so, do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive, without any roots?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 8: Thank you, Mr. al-Rifa'ee. A good question helps engender a good answer; but can I guarantee a good answer? Even if it is not, I am sure questions like yours and answers like mine will help questions and answers to be better and more refined and sophisticated in the future. Future answers will help people get rid of physical suffering and mental anxiety. It seems that I have, in the course of my previous questions, taken care of your question. But in view of the importance of the topic, and the major part veneration of the fathers has in impeding our progress, there is no harm in taking it up, at the risk of some repetition. Indeed, these issues have not been discussed enough, and it will be a long time before justice has been done to them. No, I do not call to giving up the Islamic heritage, nor indeed the heritage of mankind right from the first man that existed on earth, so many millennia before men could read and write. The first men who succeeded in domesticating animals and started agriculture laid the basis for all later development. It is a grave mistake to dismiss them from memory, for in that case we shall have to reproduce the whole process of man's development across his long history. And progress will not stop. Man can learn to intervene in the production of plants; there is nothing indeed to prevent him from learning to artificially produce what plants produce, and so have unlimited quantities of the same fruits and vegetables at his disposal, and with the minimum cost. In the same way as men have outlived the era when horses, mules and donkeys were the means of transport to the era of modern transportation, in the same way as man achieved that which no one would have fancied to be possible just a few generations back, men will, a few generations hence, achieve things that we cannot imagine; for God, as the Qur'an tells us: "adds to creation as He pleases;" (35:1). The verse leaves the door open, and no one may claim it should be closed. To be content with what the ancestors left behind is now suicidal! Must we accept their way of transferring authority? It was an accepted practice in the past to transfer rule with treachery and assassination, and people reveled at it. It happened because it was the way people understood God's 'sunan, laws', but things have changed since. And even now, we still misunderstand the Qur'an when it says: "O God! Lord of Power, Thou givest power to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off power from who Thou pleasest; Thou enduest with honor whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleaesest;" (3:26) but we see how God has enabled some people, who know about His laws and act on them, to themselves give power to whom they please, and strip off power from whoever they please. When we discuss the fathers, we need to determine where they stand. It is right to say for instance that they did not have the knowledge that is now available, they soon fell back for the transfer of authority on treachery, assassination, and crooked ways; all kinds of savagery were justified in the way of capturing the position of ruler. I do realize that this does no go far in replying to your question; but there will be some scholars who can clarify this fogginess. No matter how long it will take the Muslim World to see things for what they are, light will come; what is good for mankind will survive all the froth. But we really must accept the best of the ancestors' deeds and forgive them their ill deeds, as a certain verse of the Qur'an directs us (46:15). We need to understand fully that history does not stop, neither for our forefathers, nor for any other people. There was a time when men slept in the cave and died in their struggle with carnivorous animals; indeed, we have a trace of that in the Qur'an, when Jacob declares to his sons that he is worried that if they take Joseph, the wolf might devour him while they are busy racing. It will not do to let our love and veneration for the ancestors completely block our expanding our understanding; the Qur'an itself reports how ancestors can be a great impediment to development: "They say: 'Nay! We shall follow the ways of our fathers.' What! Even though their fathers were void of wisdom and guidance?" (2:170) The Prophet, peace be upon him, warned one of his companions that it was quite difficult to be a just witness when a dear kin was involved. It is a common thing in judicial procedures that individuals may not be witnesses when a close relative is involved. Indeed, people are mostly quite biased when something concerns a person who is from their own ethnic group or their town or their religion. It is not such a strange thing that all the opponents of prophets always referred to their fathers in rejecting the prophets' call. Although the Qur'an condemns those who follow their fathers blindly, Muslims take this to apply to all other peoples but not themselves. The problem of father idealization is a most trying one, and it is a huge stumbling block for Muslims; they seem to lose all balance when it comes to going beyond the limits of their fathers; hence the confusion of right and wrong. We are commanded by the Qur'an: "O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin;" (4:135) which is a most stern command. The way to deal with the fathers is to measure their behavior and convictions against the laws of history: history will not give respite to those who ignore its laws. It must be a firm conviction of ours that what is good for mankind will be given survival. I have lived through this fascination for the fathers, so have all of us; but it varies from one to one. It may be noted that as time passes, some of that fascination is wearing away, for the veneration had reached such a dimension that it made Muslims incapable of seeking better solutions for their problems. Let me repeat that the same forefathers that we glorify had fought among themselves, had failed to stand for truth, had let falsehood dominate, and had resurrected pre-Islamic ways. But why has all this lingered until today? Why cannot we go beyond the negative aspects in the legacy of the fathers? Why cannot we emulate the perceptiveness of their minds, something that other nations, people who we brand as unbelievers, achieved in doing, and then went beyond the legacy of the ancients? Take for instance the European Union. It is a peaceful, scientific, egalitarian, system; it has been designed and executed with great care; and it is certainly nearer to the commands of God and His Messenger, peace be upon him, and all the wise people in the world, than our disharmony, hostility, and disunity. Are we quite incapable of understanding? Can we not see how our veneration for the fathers impedes our discerning any solutions for our chronic ills? Nonetheless, it may be noted that the severe blows of sectarian struggle in the Muslim World tend to be less excessive as time passes, and they are gradually opening our minds to be more receptive, and our senses to be more sensitive. It was Iqbal who noticed that the world, except for us, got over the complex of the servile attitude to the fathers; Muslims still challenge the whole world, and challenge the facts of history, insisting that God has not, and will not, create any humans like them. I wonder how those who will come later will think of writings like mine, and how they will judge us! History is indeed a very strict judge! But let us pray to the Exalted Lord to make us respond to the events of history! We have already received enough blows, very severe blows; enough to make anyone learn the lesson. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 53 2009-05-06T08:55:08Z Admin 1 Created page with '==One frequently comes in your writings across an exhortation to break free from "patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility";== '''you justify that attitude of yours by asserti...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==One frequently comes in your writings across an exhortation to break free from "patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility";== '''you justify that attitude of yours by asserting that patriarchal idolization precludes any fresh vision. Does this mean that you support breaking away with the Islamic heritage? Is not any growth without roots an illusion?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} Thank your, Mr. Rifa'ee, for a good question calls for a good answer. Whether or not my answer will be satisfactory, your question will remain a challenge. I am sure that the questions will go on improving and becoming more poignant and urgent and defined; and so will the answers, until people get over their anxiety and pain, both physical and spiritual. I daresay I have given some sort of answer to this question in the folds of my previous answers, but the topic you are raising is both important and critical in relation to impeding or reinforcing our progress. Therefore, such topic must be discussed again and again. It has also been handled by others, but they haven't said, and they will not say, the last word concerning this topic. I don't advocate rejecting the heritage, not even the heritage of pre-historical ages, before the invention of writing. It is in prehistory that man domesticated animals and discovered agriculture. Such achievements may not be ignored, for if we ignore them, we must return to life prior to agriculture and the domestication of animals. Obviously, an age that has passed must not be repeated – mankind will not ignore the discovery of agriculture and return to the pre-agriculture age. But agriculture does not stay as it is: people do new grafting on trees, and they can find out more of the laws by which the trees produce their fruit, which will in the future enable men to manufacture the fruits artificially by emulating the trees. Once man has mastered this skill, fruits and vegetables will be manufactured at cheap prices and with infinite quantities. We would be within God's law, expressed in the Qur'anic verse: "And He creates things of which you have no knowledge, (16, 8)." In the same way as men went beyond the age of horses, mules and donkeys for transport and carrying weights, and discovered means which would not have occurred to the minds of those before us, those who come after us will discover things that do not occur to us. The law of 'And He creates things of which you have no knowledge,' will remain open indefinitely; it will be so since God has chosen not to set any limit on it – God's bounty has no limit, as we read in another verse of the Qur'an: "If the ocean were ink wherewith to write out the words of my Lord, sooner would the ocean be exhausted than would the words of my Lord, (18, 109)." In so many areas, to stop where the past generations left us is now suicide. To transfer authority with killing and treachery used to be acceptable, and people received it gladly – it was so when people's comprehension of God's law was confined to this, and that is how they would take verses of the Qur'an like: "O Allah! Lord of Power and Rule, You give Power to whom You please, and You strip off Power from whom You please, (3, 26)." But you see now how God enables certain people, by God's laws, to themselves give power to whom they please, and strip off power from whom they please. So we need to realize the limits of our forefathers: they did not have the ability to perceive such facts, and so they regressed to killing and treachery and dishonesty and lying; they shed blood and broke the bones of their adversaries. Well, there you are. I have not the words to answer your question, my intellectual capacity falls short, and therefore I remain incoherent. I do not bring out the truth as the Qur'an puts it, with the manifest expression (the word for manifest expression in all its derivatives is used scores of time in this sense in the Qur'an.) More capable men and women are being formed at this moment everywhere, and they will produce the right expressions which will lead people out of darkness and into the light. It is again God's law in the world, that the scum will disappear like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind [all mankind] remains on the earth (reference to the Qur'an, 13, 17.) It may take long or short, but people will come to understand. God's law dictates that we accept from the ancestors, and also from the past generations of others, the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds (reference to the Qur'an, 46, 16)." We have to be sure that history does not come to a stop, that God's creation has not come to a stop with our ancestors or the ancestors of other nations. The ancestors of all of mankind lived at one time in caves, naked, and were devoured by animals – the Qur'an tells us how Jacob said to his sons about Joseph: "I fear lest the wolf should devour him while you do not attend to him, (12, 13)," for his fear was logical at that time, and it is not so far off. We need to put right our attitude towards the ancestors, and the Almighty tells us in the Qur'an that to imitate the forefathers is a barrier. It is so because when you love, you are blind and deaf. Exceeding admiration strips one of the power of seeing and understanding, in a literal sense in certain cases. That is why the Qur'an says about following the fathers: "What! Even though their fathers were void of wisdom and guidance? (2, 170)" Once, the Messenger, peace be upon him, wondered: "And how can you be just in dealing with the dear and near?" It is for such aspects that testifying in favour of, or against, relatives is rejected: it is so because favouring the family, the father, one's group, one's fellow in religion or compatriots is widespread. To see the truth and falsehood concerning the fathers and forefathers is so hard – all those who opposed the prophets cited their fathers as the authority. And yet, no matter how vehemently the Qur'an condemns following the fathers, Muslims think that they are exempt from the rules concerning the glorification of ancestors, as if we were not human like other humans. The problem of abay'iyyah 'glorification of ancestors' is a stumbling block where the eyes go wild and the minds are misty and the truth is confused with falsehood. That is why, no matter how solemnly God commands us: "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin (4, 135)," we seem to turn deaf ears to this. We really need to bring our fathers under the law of history, for history accepts no indulgence of anybody, and if we are scum we shall disappear. It is for the good of progeny to let the scum disappear, and to allow that which is good for everybody to settle in the earth. I have come under the influence of fathers, and we all do in various degrees; what is agreeable to the past generations is held up by the next generations. But with the passage of time, the glorification of ancestors is becoming less pronounced. Indeed, Muslims have gone farther than any sensible limit in aggrandizing and extolling their ancestors, even when it became evident that they, the forefathers, did not have the best solutions: it is our ancestors who fought amongst themselves, let down the truth and hailed falsehood; it is they who resurrected the pre-Islamic ways. To this day, we seem incapable of finding an outlet from the drawbacks and shortcomings of their comprehension; those who we count as unbelievers have rid themselves of that complex, and they can think creatively of ingenious solutions to problems. The European Union, the egalitarian, peaceful, and scientific union which is being shaped with extreme care is more in line with what God and His Messenger teach, and more sensible than our disparity and strife and hatred, things that block our way to understanding – and we seem not to find the way to get over them. It must be said, however, that the exceeding pain some of us have inflicted on others are beginning to ameliorate our excesses, and we begin to open our ears and eyes; our mouths, too, begin to utter some words – it is not taboo, as Iqbal said, to discuss our culture and analyze it in every way. The Muslim World is almost the only part of the world where the ancestors remain an impediment to progress; Muslims still challenge the world and history with their claim that God has not, and will not, create their likes. But how will those who come after us read these words, and how will they judge us; history's sentences are hard and painful, as the Qur'an says: "Such is the chastisement of your Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement, (11, 102)." But we pray to God that He makes us learn the lessons, to change our attitudes. Enough humiliation and suffering we have undergone to learn the significance of history's events! [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 32 132 131 2009-08-23T10:37:24Z Admin 1 moved [[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] to [[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 9: Do you agree with the now prevalent assumption that the Muslim mind is in a crisis? If that is so, how extensive is this phenomenon, and what are its manifestations? How can we overcome this crisis?'''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 9: There can be no doubt about the crisis in comprehension and consciousness in the Muslim World. It is so glaring that anyone can see it. It was first perceived by the others when they spoke of the Ottoman Empire as 'the sick man of Europe', but it often happens that the afflicted are the last to awake to their affliction. We know that somebody is sick when we notice his pale color, his unsteady hand, his lack of energy: all such symptoms are true of the Muslim World. Indeed, even the least educated will speak vehemently, or write mournful poems, about this ummah, Muslim nation. Who can fail to notice how Muslims ruin their own life? How Muslims receive ill treatment at the hand of Muslims? How Muslims can join hands with confirmed enemies against their brethren? Worse, we call all that acts of devotion that bring us closer to God. Is not our condition similar to that of the unbelievers described in this verse of the Qur'an: "The unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder men from the path of God, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have only regret and sighs; at length they will be overcome;" (8:36) So that is the easy part of the question. The interesting part is of course the latter part: How can we deal with this crisis? As in other questions, there is often overlap in answers. I find that some of the previous questions are relevant here. Let me remind you of your question number four about the two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an and world history. Yes, Abdul-Jabbar; you express very truly my stance concerning history, as an instructor: yes, it is in fact the sole instructor who is all patience despite the inattention of most humans. It is like the computer, which never loses its temper, but never fails to give the person in error the feedback: Wrong answer – try again! No matter how often the user repeats his mistake, the computer is never furious, but never forgiving a mistake. History is what builds up understanding. We have so little understanding because we do have no sense of history. I sometimes say that a person who does not know history is not trustworthy as a thinker about human affairs. The Qur'an itself says that history will be its witness. It says that in verses like: 'So see what was the end of those who made mischief,' (7:103) 'Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime' (7:84) 'But see what was the end of those who did wrong,' (10:39). In the same way as one needs a witness in the law court to prove his case, the Qur'an refers to history to be its witness: "Soon will We show them Our Signs in the furthest regions of the earth, and in their won souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth;" (41:53) I also quoted Muhammad Iqbal when he said that history was a source of knowledge. When you ask: How can we get over the crisis which we undergo? The answer is that we get over it by viewing those who went through crises like ours or worse than ours, and how they got out of them. The West went through a long series of wars, local, regional, and international; its nations did each other a lot of mischief, and caused each other great suffering. The Christians who read in their Bible: Love your enemy, inflicted on each other all kinds of scourge. But they succeeded in going beyond those crises; so how did they succeed? In this there is a lesson for him who has ears and eyes and a heart. We can learn the lesson of Europe – by finding the way to integrating and concerting our interests, without any party losing anything; with all sides winning; in a scientific and peaceful way; unless we do that, saving time and pain – we shall have to learn the lesson after we have had a surfeit of torture and loss. History will teach each one of us, and will not fail to have its lesson driven home, but it is by means of suffering that history teaches. "Such is the penalty of thy Lord when he penalizes communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His penalty;" (11:102). So let us be attentive to what is happening in Europe. It is something new and unprecedented in the history of the world. Let me mention again that when something has happened once, it can happen again; it can be a law and a scientific truth: people can adopt it and use it to account. We need to probe the European event in all its details, from beginning to end. It is taking place under our very nose, so why cannot we see and hear? Does it not concern us how people succeed when we cannot? Let us think of Germany, which stands to lose much in the short run; let us think how the borders are being opened, how the monetary union has become a fact. No messenger has descended from heaven to teach them all this, nor do they wait for the clergy to tell them what to do: it is all the work of science, the lessons of history; sociologists and statisticians have their say, and what they say is respected and applied. It is not so with us, where science is despised and physical power is glorified. What Europe is realizing is more momentous than the detonation of the atomic bomb, although the atomic bomb did have its indirect share in what happened. We should be smarter and not wait until the atomic bomb forces us to learn their lesson. I think, Mr. al-Rifa'ee that I can sympathize with the darkness and bewilderment that you must feel; but did you think that you will find light and contentment by addressing me? Knowing history is really a source of light: history grants gratis the experience that others had paid for! By appealing to history with open eyes and ears, you get the thing ready-made. Jalal Nouri, a Turkish social writer from the late Ottoman period once wrote: "Once we learn the ABC of knowledge, no mountains and no rivers will detain our progress; our lost rights will return to our children and grand children with interest." Well, let this be our solace in these dark days, when we have to pay dearly [for the purchase of weapons,] but our money evaporates into air, and money is the solid base of our life; and we see the orphans and widows in pitiful tears, and the zealous young men butting at a solid wall [by resorting to violence,] as they see the grown-ups putting their heads into the sand. I do not say I have solved any problems, nor that I have arrived at any conclusions. All I have done is to raise questions and look right and left, to see if it is possible to get out of the crisis. And so the answer is yes, there is a way out. God did hint that man will get over mischief and the spilling of blood (ref. to the Qur'an, 2:30); and no one should say it is far off; how fast it will come will indeed surprise us. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 131 130 2009-08-23T10:36:46Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 9: Do you agree with the now prevalent assumption that the Muslim mind is in a crisis? If that is so, how extensive is this phenomenon, and what are its manifestations? How can we overcome this crisis?'''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 9: There can be no doubt about the crisis in comprehension and consciousness in the Muslim World. It is so glaring that anyone can see it. It was first perceived by the others when they spoke of the Ottoman Empire as 'the sick man of Europe', but it often happens that the afflicted are the last to awake to their affliction. We know that somebody is sick when we notice his pale color, his unsteady hand, his lack of energy: all such symptoms are true of the Muslim World. Indeed, even the least educated will speak vehemently, or write mournful poems, about this ummah, Muslim nation. Who can fail to notice how Muslims ruin their own life? How Muslims receive ill treatment at the hand of Muslims? How Muslims can join hands with confirmed enemies against their brethren? Worse, we call all that acts of devotion that bring us closer to God. Is not our condition similar to that of the unbelievers described in this verse of the Qur'an: "The unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder men from the path of God, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have only regret and sighs; at length they will be overcome;" (8:36) So that is the easy part of the question. The interesting part is of course the latter part: How can we deal with this crisis? As in other questions, there is often overlap in answers. I find that some of the previous questions are relevant here. Let me remind you of your question number four about the two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an and world history. Yes, Abdul-Jabbar; you express very truly my stance concerning history, as an instructor: yes, it is in fact the sole instructor who is all patience despite the inattention of most humans. It is like the computer, which never loses its temper, but never fails to give the person in error the feedback: Wrong answer – try again! No matter how often the user repeats his mistake, the computer is never furious, but never forgiving a mistake. History is what builds up understanding. We have so little understanding because we do have no sense of history. I sometimes say that a person who does not know history is not trustworthy as a thinker about human affairs. The Qur'an itself says that history will be its witness. It says that in verses like: 'So see what was the end of those who made mischief,' (7:103) 'Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime' (7:84) 'But see what was the end of those who did wrong,' (10:39). In the same way as one needs a witness in the law court to prove his case, the Qur'an refers to history to be its witness: "Soon will We show them Our Signs in the furthest regions of the earth, and in their won souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth;" (41:53) I also quoted Muhammad Iqbal when he said that history was a source of knowledge. When you ask: How can we get over the crisis which we undergo? The answer is that we get over it by viewing those who went through crises like ours or worse than ours, and how they got out of them. The West went through a long series of wars, local, regional, and international; its nations did each other a lot of mischief, and caused each other great suffering. The Christians who read in their Bible: Love your enemy, inflicted on each other all kinds of scourge. But they succeeded in going beyond those crises; so how did they succeed? In this there is a lesson for him who has ears and eyes and a heart. We can learn the lesson of Europe – by finding the way to integrating and concerting our interests, without any party losing anything; with all sides winning; in a scientific and peaceful way; unless we do that, saving time and pain – we shall have to learn the lesson after we have had a surfeit of torture and loss. History will teach each one of us, and will not fail to have its lesson driven home, but it is by means of suffering that history teaches. "Such is the penalty of thy Lord when he penalizes communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His penalty;" (11:102). So let us be attentive to what is happening in Europe. It is something new and unprecedented in the history of the world. Let me mention again that when something has happened once, it can happen again; it can be a law and a scientific truth: people can adopt it and use it to account. We need to probe the European event in all its details, from beginning to end. It is taking place under our very nose, so why cannot we see and hear? Does it not concern us how people succeed when we cannot? Let us think of Germany, which stands to lose much in the short run; let us think how the borders are being opened, how the monetary union has become a fact. No messenger has descended from heaven to teach them all this, nor do they wait for the clergy to tell them what to do: it is all the work of science, the lessons of history; sociologists and statisticians have their say, and what they say is respected and applied. It is not so with us, where science is despised and physical power is glorified. What Europe is realizing is more momentous than the detonation of the atomic bomb, although the atomic bomb did have its indirect share in what happened. We should be smarter and not wait until the atomic bomb forces us to learn their lesson. I think, Mr. al-Rifa'ee that I can sympathize with the darkness and bewilderment that you must feel; but did you think that you will find light and contentment by addressing me? Knowing history is really a source of light: history grants gratis the experience that others had paid for! By appealing to history with open eyes and ears, you get the thing ready-made. Jalal Nouri, a Turkish social writer from the late Ottoman period once wrote: "Once we learn the ABC of knowledge, no mountains and no rivers will detain our progress; our lost rights will return to our children and grand children with interest." Well, let this be our solace in these dark days, when we have to pay dearly [for the purchase of weapons,] but our money evaporates into air, and money is the solid base of our life; and we see the orphans and widows in pitiful tears, and the zealous young men butting at a solid wall [by resorting to violence,] as they see the grown-ups putting their heads into the sand. I do not say I have solved any problems, nor that I have arrived at any conclusions. All I have done is to raise questions and look right and left, to see if it is possible to get out of the crisis. And so the answer is yes, there is a way out. God did hint that man will get over mischief and the spilling of blood (ref. to the Qur'an, 2:30); and no one should say it is far off; how fast it will come will indeed surprise us. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 130 56 2009-08-23T10:36:05Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Q. 9: Do you agree with the now prevalent assumption that the Muslim mind is in a crisis? If that is so, how extensive is this phenomenon, and what are its manifestations? How can we overcome this crisis?'''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} A. 9: There can be no doubt about the crisis in comprehension and consciousness in the Muslim World. It is so glaring that anyone can see it. It was first perceived by the others when they spoke of the Ottoman Empire as 'the sick man of Europe', but it often happens that the afflicted are the last to awake to their affliction. We know that somebody is sick when we notice his pale color, his unsteady hand, his lack of energy: all such symptoms are true of the Muslim World. Indeed, even the least educated will speak vehemently, or write mournful poems, about this ummah, Muslim nation. Who can fail to notice how Muslims ruin their own life? How Muslims receive ill treatment at the hand of Muslims? How Muslims can join hands with confirmed enemies against their brethren? Worse, we call all that acts of devotion that bring us closer to God. Is not our condition similar to that of the unbelievers described in this verse of the Qur'an: "The unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder men from the path of God, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have only regret and sighs; at length they will be overcome;" (8:36) So that is the easy part of the question. The interesting part is of course the latter part: How can we deal with this crisis? As in other questions, there is often overlap in answers. I find that some of the previous questions are relevant here. Let me remind you of your question number four about the two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an and world history. Yes, Abdul-Jabbar; you express very truly my stance concerning history, as an instructor: yes, it is in fact the sole instructor who is all patience despite the inattention of most humans. It is like the computer, which never loses its temper, but never fails to give the person in error the feedback: Wrong answer – try again! No matter how often the user repeats his mistake, the computer is never furious, but never forgiving a mistake. History is what builds up understanding. We have so little understanding because we do have no sense of history. I sometimes say that a person who does not know history is not trustworthy as a thinker about human affairs. The Qur'an itself says that history will be its witness. It says that in verses like: 'So see what was the end of those who made mischief,' (7:103) 'Then see what was the end of those who indulged in sin and crime' (7:84) 'But see what was the end of those who did wrong,' (10:39). In the same way as one needs a witness in the law court to prove his case, the Qur'an refers to history to be its witness: "Soon will We show them Our Signs in the furthest regions of the earth, and in their won souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth;" (41:53) I also quoted Muhammad Iqbal when he said that history was a source of knowledge. When you ask: How can we get over the crisis which we undergo? The answer is that we get over it by viewing those who went through crises like ours or worse than ours, and how they got out of them. The West went through a long series of wars, local, regional, and international; its nations did each other a lot of mischief, and caused each other great suffering. The Christians who read in their Bible: Love your enemy, inflicted on each other all kinds of scourge. But they succeeded in going beyond those crises; so how did they succeed? In this there is a lesson for him who has ears and eyes and a heart. We can learn the lesson of Europe – by finding the way to integrating and concerting our interests, without any party losing anything; with all sides winning; in a scientific and peaceful way; unless we do that, saving time and pain – we shall have to learn the lesson after we have had a surfeit of torture and loss. History will teach each one of us, and will not fail to have its lesson driven home, but it is by means of suffering that history teaches. "Such is the penalty of thy Lord when he penalizes communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His penalty;" (11:102). So let us be attentive to what is happening in Europe. It is something new and unprecedented in the history of the world. Let me mention again that when something has happened once, it can happen again; it can be a law and a scientific truth: people can adopt it and use it to account. We need to probe the European event in all its details, from beginning to end. It is taking place under our very nose, so why cannot we see and hear? Does it not concern us how people succeed when we cannot? Let us think of Germany, which stands to lose much in the short run; let us think how the borders are being opened, how the monetary union has become a fact. No messenger has descended from heaven to teach them all this, nor do they wait for the clergy to tell them what to do: it is all the work of science, the lessons of history; sociologists and statisticians have their say, and what they say is respected and applied. It is not so with us, where science is despised and physical power is glorified. What Europe is realizing is more momentous than the detonation of the atomic bomb, although the atomic bomb did have its indirect share in what happened. We should be smarter and not wait until the atomic bomb forces us to learn their lesson. I think, Mr. al-Rifa'ee that I can sympathize with the darkness and bewilderment that you must feel; but did you think that you will find light and contentment by addressing me? Knowing history is really a source of light: history grants gratis the experience that others had paid for! By appealing to history with open eyes and ears, you get the thing ready-made. Jalal Nouri, a Turkish social writer from the late Ottoman period once wrote: "Once we learn the ABC of knowledge, no mountains and no rivers will detain our progress; our lost rights will return to our children and grand children with interest." Well, let this be our solace in these dark days, when we have to pay dearly [for the purchase of weapons,] but our money evaporates into air, and money is the solid base of our life; and we see the orphans and widows in pitiful tears, and the zealous young men butting at a solid wall [by resorting to violence,] as they see the grown-ups putting their heads into the sand. I do not say I have solved any problems, nor that I have arrived at any conclusions. All I have done is to raise questions and look right and left, to see if it is possible to get out of the crisis. And so the answer is yes, there is a way out. God did hint that man will get over mischief and the spilling of blood (ref. to the Qur'an, 2:30); and no one should say it is far off; how fast it will come will indeed surprise us. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 56 2009-05-06T09:18:47Z Admin 1 Created page with '==Is it true that the Islamic mind (reason) is in a state of crisis as it is said to be in the writings of some researchers? == '''What are the effects of that crisis, and how wi...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==Is it true that the Islamic mind (reason) is in a state of crisis as it is said to be in the writings of some researchers? == '''What are the effects of that crisis, and how widespread? And how can we overcome that crisis?''' {{ Current Islamic Issues }} That the Muslim understanding is in a state of crisis is beyond any shred of doubt. It is something that is so glaring that anyone can notice and see it. The Ottomans, the sick man, are not too far off from us, but it seem that the last to perceive an imminent disaster are those who are most involved. When we come across a sick person, we know he is sick from his pale face, from his inability to go about helping himself, from his weakness and lack of energy, and that is all true of the Muslim World. Indeed, even the most ignorant Muslims have noticed our ailments and crises – they write poems of complaint. I am in fact not the right person to survey the effects of that crisis or to diagnose it, although it is something that everybody, far and near, can observe. We destroy our homes with our own hands, and help each other in that, and we induce others to be aggressive against our brethren, who we count as adversaries we spend our money to crush, and are ready to offer our lives in slaying them, claiming that it is all in the cause of God. It is true of us what God said of the unbelievers: "The Unbelievers spend their wealth to hinder men from the path of Allah, and so will they continue to spend; but in the end they will have only regrets and sighs; at length they will be overcome: and the Unbelievers will be gathered together to Hell (in our case the hell of the life we live,) (8, 36)." We feel our life to be hell; whatever we do seems to push us further back, all our efforts seem to be lost; we do not like, even in secret, to look inside. But the last part of your question is the most interesting one: How to overcome that crisis? It is of course the same with the other questions, that an answer to a question includes points relevant to other questions, and I lean on that when tackling the latter questions. So let me do this again here, and refer to the question above about history, Question Four. You said in that question: How would you relate world history to the Qur'an? How can world history support the Qur'an? I thank you again, Mr. Rifa'ee: you point out forcefully the significance of history, and you say that it is I who say that history is the tutor. Yes, it is the tutor, and the only tutor who forbears the ignorance of the ignorant. Like the computer, history will not flare up or be passionate: most coolly it will say: that's wrong, try again, and will do that every time. History is intellect. Our mind is in a crisis because we have a crisis with history. I once said about that the knowledge of those who do not know history cannot be reliable. The Qur'an itself accepts history as a witness for it: you see that, for instance, in expressions like: "See what was the end of those who rejected Truth, (43, 27)." Iqbal was the one who noted that history is the source of knowledge. It is known that to prove a case in law-courts you need a witness, and the Qur'an is accepting history to be its witness – it is virtually saying: To prove my truth and that I am telling the truth I refer to God's signs: You see this, for instance, in the following verse: "Soon will We show them Our Signs in the furthest regions of the world, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth, (41, 53)." History is then the referent of the Qur'an; the signs of the world and the souls are described elsewhere in the Qur'an as the Days of Allah (e.g. 14, 5) Such days are the days when some peoples were defeated, some were crushed, others perished, and "those habitations of theirs, after them, are deserted," (the Qur'an, 28, 58)." So when you ask how can we overcome this crisis? We overcome it by learning a lesson from what befell those who passed before us, and those who still live with us. In the Western world, they lived days like ours or worse – they waged against one another the bitterest of national, religious, regional and world wars; the clergy who read in their Scripture, Love your enemy, inflicted on their adversaries the harshest and severest pain; But how did they overcome all that? There are in that lessons for men of understanding, for those who have ears and minds. There is no hope for us unless we take heed and learn how to integrate our interests, as the Europeans do integrate their interests, without any side losing anything; all are winners, and the style of conducting things is peaceful and scientific. So unless we learn this, and moreover learn how to condense history, we shall have to learn it after so much agony and anguish – for learn the lesson we must, even if after we have received all the suffering and loss that are there to receive. In fact history shall absolutely teach us, but it teaches with torture: "Such is the chastisement of your Lord when He chastises communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His chastisement, (the Qur'an, 11, 102)." We need to keep abreast of the European event. It is something new in the world: nothing took place like this in the history of mankind, nothing at this scale. And what happens once is set to be a law, something that can be repeated, and copied by other people: it is this how laws are applied and put to the service of mankind. Therefore I repeat, we must keep watchful of the European event, from beginning to end. It is happening under our nose, under our eyes, but yet we do not see and do not hear, as if what is happening has nothing to do with us, as if there is nothing to learn in it. How has Germany conceded to be part of this new union, with the short-term loss that it incurred? It is so because it has the perception to expect the long-range profit. How have they opened the boundaries and united the currency? This is not something that descends from heaven; it is not the clergy who are doing it: it is scientists, historians, sociologists and statisticians; it is they who present their information and facts. But science is ignored and despised in our part of the world; it is rather the use of force which we heed to. But what the Europeans are doing is much more momentous than the detonation of the nuclear bomb, although the bomb did help indirectly in bringing this about. But we do not have to follow in their steps, we do not have to produce the nuclear bomb before we can achieve what they have achieved. Well, Mr. Al-Rifa'ee, I may have an inkling of the gloom and uncertainty that you have, but do you think that you will find with me the light and contentment? The historical knowledge is a free light and certainty; others have paid for this commodity, and we need only open our ears and eyes and have alert minds to get the commodity that is waiting for us. Jalal Al-Noori, an Ottoman social writer, once said: "Once you learn the elements of knowledge, no mountains and no rivers can hinder your progress." Our lost rights will be returned to us, our sons and grandsons will come back with much more than we invested. This is our solace in these dreary and turbulent days, which cause us to waste our money without gaining anything in exchange, which cause our women and orphans bitter sobs, and which cause our young men to pay with their blood, butting their heads against solid walls, all because their fathers had put their heads in the sand: a situation which the Qur'an describes with the words: "Truly they found their fathers on the wrong Path; so they too were rushed down on their footsteps, (37, 69-70)." We have not as yet solved the problems, nor have we come up with conclusions; the utmost we have managed to do is to inquire: we ask and search – shall we ever overcome this crisis? Yes, we shall, yes we will! God has said the truth when He said He knew what the angels did not know, that man will get over the making of mischief and the spilling of blood (inference from the Qur'an, 2, 30.) Indeed, we have something more than surmise, for we see evidence of this in the world; it will come true, and not too far off in the future. [[Category:Inverview with Current Islamic Issues]] 0 3 7 6 2009-04-23T11:56:52Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} Only through perception can we understand our existence, and inasmuch as religion is a perception, we can only understand it through symbols. The vast difference between reality and our perceptions can be illustrated in the history of humankind's misinterpretation of the sun's role in causing day and night. That misinterpretation, held by humankind at large for centuries, was so deeply rooted that people were ready to die for it and to send those who publicly doubted it to their death. Indeed, Galileo Galilee (1564-1642) was eventually coerced to withdraw his dissent to the common misinterpretation with his hand on the Bible. Ironically, then, the sun, which is humanity's central metaphor for glaring clarity, is also our biggest historical metaphor of human misconception. Given this, can there ever be an interpretation immune to fallacy, for which people could be sent to their death? The evidence of our perceptual errors makes it possible to distinguish two worlds: a world in which we live, of which we are part; and a world that we construct in our minds. These worlds, real, biologically perceived, and imagined, have always been central subjects of debate throughout the history of thought. Humanity is now keen to understand its own journey, and its knowledge of itself and of its environment increases daily. Humankind's potential to exercise control over its environment lies in the nervous system, which absorbs and transmits experience to others through speech. It is the nervous system that enabled humanity to expand its knowledge. But what is so incredible about the human species is our ability to name things, as the French anthropologist Levi Strauss points out in his writings . Yet, the power of naming, or attaching symbols to what surrounds us, is also what has created a profound and deep disconnection of humanity from the rest of beings. A human being is the only living creature that comes to life without the knowledge required for his or her survival, acquiring it later, unlike other organisms that seem to be born with their behavior and survival needs programmed genetically. Yet, human beings carry the ability to acquire knowledge through the socialization and upbringing which society provides to them. This potential to acquire knowledge has engendered a vast expansion of human understanding of ourselves and our environment. Our knowledge now stretches to the edges of time and space. Time has expanded to more than 20 billion years. We have reached the molecule as well as the secrets of existence in its genetic design. We can compare creatures with magnificent huge bodies and incredibly small brains that inhabited our planet 70 million years ago with ourselves as a species, with a small fragile body and large brain, and we can also imagine the kinds of creatures who will inhabit the earth 10 million years from now. We now are also aware that humanity stretches back more than 3 million years, as the bones of Lucy indicate; the life of our species pre-exists the discovery of fire, and the domestication of animals and agriculture. We are aware that there was a time when humans were, like other creatures, unable to significantly influence or direct their lives, even to produce their own food. Perhaps that is why we say in Islam that the 8th day of existence has started with the expansion of our knowledge. To the extent humanity understands its history, it will understand its future and its potential capacities. Just as we can see in an infant who cannot fend for himself the promise of what he will become, so we must guard against that momentary look at our species that put us in doubt, confusion and despair, a moment when a holistic vision of the future is missing. That moment makes so many intellectuals pessimistic because they do not understand the nature of humanity's journey: they focus on human drawbacks, refusing to see the incessant creativity and innovation that mark human history. Yet, with a deep understanding of the past, which stretches into the future, humankind may gain an optimistic outlook and an admiration for the laws that govern our universe and thus be lifted from its pessimism. In fact, we could say that a person is human to the extent that person knows about humanity: extensive historical knowledge is the soul of humanity. The decisive evolution that set humanity apart from the rest of living creatures was our ability to use nervous and vocal systems to transfer experience or `knowledge' to others, to communicate through an aural symbol. After our nervous system absorbs things through visual symbols, we are capable of translating all `visual' experience to `aural' symbols that can be transmitted to another person, and those symbols, in turn, are turned into visual ones again through the invention of writing. Writing became the great human economy, preventing the waste of experience at the death of the one who carries the experience. It is striking that this invention that saved individual experience is still relatively new in our history, perhaps 5,000 years old, and paper, which facilitated the progress of writing, is barely over one thousand years old, while digital preservation of information is only a few decades old. Despite this wonder, as we have learned that we must acknowledge the possibility of error in transmitting knowledge, we have lost confidence that we can even transmit anything at all accurately. The possibility for error led our age to nihilism, much like the old Sophists . But such a refusal to acknowledge the possibility of truth and meaning is an exaggerated response to our ability to err. For example, we may misconceive of the movement of the sun, but the sun will not change its course to fit our misconceptions, nor will it be affected by them. It will continue following its own law. Similarly, we may misunderstand a spoken phrase or a written sentence, even in a holy book, for it is only through our perceptions that we connect to this world, and religion is such a perception, received through symbols. Yet, the objective reality, the truth that the holy texts and our reality tell us, does not change because we are mistaken, for the laws that govern our world do not change to fit our misconceptions. The inadequacy of our signifying symbols in transmitting the meaning of experience can be overcome if we turn to contemplate that which is signified, and do not simply focus on the signifying symbol or our perceptions of it. It is the objective living world that we must turn to, a world that does not change its course, for the laws of existence do not err, no matter how mistaken we are in understanding or interpreting them. Given this, we can analyze the problematics of text, symbol, and signifier, all which are central in discussing the religious point of view, and can verify what its signifiers should be by turning to the sl~jects they signify. The ability to symbolize distinguishes humans from the rest of living creatures and enables humanity to move on a course of continual understanding, expanding information about the laws of the universe and how it can be utilized by human beings. Symbols permit us to differentiate between the entities surrounding us and our perceptions of them. The Qur'an and the Bible both refer to this need for mediating language to differentiate entities from our perception of them. For instance, the Bible notes: In all this teaching to the crowds Jesus spoke in parables; indeed he never spoke to them except in parables. This was to fulfill the saying of the prophet: `I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret since the world was made.' (Matt 13:34¬35) And in the Qur'an we see, "And such are the Parables We set forth for people, But only those who understand them who have knowledge." (Surah 29 A1 `Ankabut: 43) In these passages, we can see the interconnection between a reality that maintains its laws, our own mental perception of it and our spoken or written symbols for reality. We cannot benefit from symbols without experience, and we cannot benefit from experience if we cannot transmit it through symbols. The center of human creativity consists in the fact that our species has freed itself from transmitting its experiences genetically and can transmit them through visual and aural symbols. Hence, neither the truth of revelation nor that of experience can be transmitted to another human except through symbols. Because of our capacity for error, we must also acknowledge that the one sent to prophesy, the revealed book and the person receiving revelation are all subject to the same misconceptions that affected our understanding of the movement of the earth and sun. Without returning constantly to observe the objective world from which we created our perceptions, we can never fully rely on a mental construct, nor on aural-visual symbols; nor can we find our own sight and hearing usefizl or reliable. This continuous connection and disconnection between our mental perceptions and the objective world is a central issue in the religious life of humanity, particularly because it is harder to discern the separation of signifier and signified in religious experience. We could say that religion, the infinite or the sacred, addresses us in two languages: the language of laws, which govern our existence, and the language of symbols, which illustrate the universe through interpretation. But it is important to distinguish signifier and signified: if the word "fire" were really fire, it would burn the tongue that utters it and the paper on which it is written. In order for us to keep in mind both the connection and distinction between perception and the world, we must continue to refer to and seek out the external world through symbols or books which put us in touch with the knowledge which has been already acquired through others' experiences. As we interact with the outside world, we discover that it has its laws: beneficial outcomes are sifted through long processes of classification and counting. Similarly, symbol-making has its laws. And despite the incredible utility of symbols, the outcome of our search for truth does not come from the symbols themselves: the real reference is in the outside world to which they refer. One of humanity's greatest needs is to both connect and disconnect the sacred and the worldly just as we connected and disconnected reality from our own mental constructs of it. We need to see the relationship between signifier and signified. We might thus look at the entire universe as a symbol of the creator. In this case the direction of reference is somewhat different because, in this case, we recognize the sacred through the worldly. This can happen because it is through the universe that we acquire knowledge about the sacred. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 6 2009-04-23T11:55:19Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Only through perception can we understand our existence, and inasmuch as religion is a perception, we can only understand it through symbols. The vast difference between reality...' wikitext text/x-wiki Only through perception can we understand our existence, and inasmuch as religion is a perception, we can only understand it through symbols. The vast difference between reality and our perceptions can be illustrated in the history of humankind's misinterpretation of the sun's role in causing day and night. That misinterpretation, held by humankind at large for centuries, was so deeply rooted that people were ready to die for it and to send those who publicly doubted it to their death. Indeed, Galileo Galilee (1564-1642) was eventually coerced to withdraw his dissent to the common misinterpretation with his hand on the Bible. Ironically, then, the sun, which is humanity's central metaphor for glaring clarity, is also our biggest historical metaphor of human misconception. Given this, can there ever be an interpretation immune to fallacy, for which people could be sent to their death? The evidence of our perceptual errors makes it possible to distinguish two worlds: a world in which we live, of which we are part; and a world that we construct in our minds. These worlds, real, biologically perceived, and imagined, have always been central subjects of debate throughout the history of thought. Humanity is now keen to understand its own journey, and its knowledge of itself and of its environment increases daily. Humankind's potential to exercise control over its environment lies in the nervous system, which absorbs and transmits experience to others through speech. It is the nervous system that enabled humanity to expand its knowledge. But what is so incredible about the human species is our ability to name things, as the French anthropologist Levi Strauss points out in his writings . Yet, the power of naming, or attaching symbols to what surrounds us, is also what has created a profound and deep disconnection of humanity from the rest of beings. A human being is the only living creature that comes to life without the knowledge required for his or her survival, acquiring it later, unlike other organisms that seem to be born with their behavior and survival needs programmed genetically. Yet, human beings carry the ability to acquire knowledge through the socialization and upbringing which society provides to them. This potential to acquire knowledge has engendered a vast expansion of human understanding of ourselves and our environment. Our knowledge now stretches to the edges of time and space. Time has expanded to more than 20 billion years. We have reached the molecule as well as the secrets of existence in its genetic design. We can compare creatures with magnificent huge bodies and incredibly small brains that inhabited our planet 70 million years ago with ourselves as a species, with a small fragile body and large brain, and we can also imagine the kinds of creatures who will inhabit the earth 10 million years from now. We now are also aware that humanity stretches back more than 3 million years, as the bones of Lucy indicate; the life of our species pre-exists the discovery of fire, and the domestication of animals and agriculture. We are aware that there was a time when humans were, like other creatures, unable to significantly influence or direct their lives, even to produce their own food. Perhaps that is why we say in Islam that the 8th day of existence has started with the expansion of our knowledge. To the extent humanity understands its history, it will understand its future and its potential capacities. Just as we can see in an infant who cannot fend for himself the promise of what he will become, so we must guard against that momentary look at our species that put us in doubt, confusion and despair, a moment when a holistic vision of the future is missing. That moment makes so many intellectuals pessimistic because they do not understand the nature of humanity's journey: they focus on human drawbacks, refusing to see the incessant creativity and innovation that mark human history. Yet, with a deep understanding of the past, which stretches into the future, humankind may gain an optimistic outlook and an admiration for the laws that govern our universe and thus be lifted from its pessimism. In fact, we could say that a person is human to the extent that person knows about humanity: extensive historical knowledge is the soul of humanity. The decisive evolution that set humanity apart from the rest of living creatures was our ability to use nervous and vocal systems to transfer experience or `knowledge' to others, to communicate through an aural symbol. After our nervous system absorbs things through visual symbols, we are capable of translating all `visual' experience to `aural' symbols that can be transmitted to another person, and those symbols, in turn, are turned into visual ones again through the invention of writing. Writing became the great human economy, preventing the waste of experience at the death of the one who carries the experience. It is striking that this invention that saved individual experience is still relatively new in our history, perhaps 5,000 years old, and paper, which facilitated the progress of writing, is barely over one thousand years old, while digital preservation of information is only a few decades old. Despite this wonder, as we have learned that we must acknowledge the possibility of error in transmitting knowledge, we have lost confidence that we can even transmit anything at all accurately. The possibility for error led our age to nihilism, much like the old Sophists . But such a refusal to acknowledge the possibility of truth and meaning is an exaggerated response to our ability to err. For example, we may misconceive of the movement of the sun, but the sun will not change its course to fit our misconceptions, nor will it be affected by them. It will continue following its own law. Similarly, we may misunderstand a spoken phrase or a written sentence, even in a holy book, for it is only through our perceptions that we connect to this world, and religion is such a perception, received through symbols. Yet, the objective reality, the truth that the holy texts and our reality tell us, does not change because we are mistaken, for the laws that govern our world do not change to fit our misconceptions. The inadequacy of our signifying symbols in transmitting the meaning of experience can be overcome if we turn to contemplate that which is signified, and do not simply focus on the signifying symbol or our perceptions of it. It is the objective living world that we must turn to, a world that does not change its course, for the laws of existence do not err, no matter how mistaken we are in understanding or interpreting them. Given this, we can analyze the problematics of text, symbol, and signifier, all which are central in discussing the religious point of view, and can verify what its signifiers should be by turning to the sl~jects they signify. The ability to symbolize distinguishes humans from the rest of living creatures and enables humanity to move on a course of continual understanding, expanding information about the laws of the universe and how it can be utilized by human beings. Symbols permit us to differentiate between the entities surrounding us and our perceptions of them. The Qur'an and the Bible both refer to this need for mediating language to differentiate entities from our perception of them. For instance, the Bible notes: In all this teaching to the crowds Jesus spoke in parables; indeed he never spoke to them except in parables. This was to fulfill the saying of the prophet: `I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things kept secret since the world was made.' (Matt 13:34¬35) And in the Qur'an we see, "And such are the Parables We set forth for people, But only those who understand them who have knowledge." (Surah 29 A1 `Ankabut: 43) In these passages, we can see the interconnection between a reality that maintains its laws, our own mental perception of it and our spoken or written symbols for reality. We cannot benefit from symbols without experience, and we cannot benefit from experience if we cannot transmit it through symbols. The center of human creativity consists in the fact that our species has freed itself from transmitting its experiences genetically and can transmit them through visual and aural symbols. Hence, neither the truth of revelation nor that of experience can be transmitted to another human except through symbols. Because of our capacity for error, we must also acknowledge that the one sent to prophesy, the revealed book and the person receiving revelation are all subject to the same misconceptions that affected our understanding of the movement of the earth and sun. Without returning constantly to observe the objective world from which we created our perceptions, we can never fully rely on a mental construct, nor on aural-visual symbols; nor can we find our own sight and hearing usefizl or reliable. This continuous connection and disconnection between our mental perceptions and the objective world is a central issue in the religious life of humanity, particularly because it is harder to discern the separation of signifier and signified in religious experience. We could say that religion, the infinite or the sacred, addresses us in two languages: the language of laws, which govern our existence, and the language of symbols, which illustrate the universe through interpretation. But it is important to distinguish signifier and signified: if the word "fire" were really fire, it would burn the tongue that utters it and the paper on which it is written. In order for us to keep in mind both the connection and distinction between perception and the world, we must continue to refer to and seek out the external world through symbols or books which put us in touch with the knowledge which has been already acquired through others' experiences. As we interact with the outside world, we discover that it has its laws: beneficial outcomes are sifted through long processes of classification and counting. Similarly, symbol-making has its laws. And despite the incredible utility of symbols, the outcome of our search for truth does not come from the symbols themselves: the real reference is in the outside world to which they refer. One of humanity's greatest needs is to both connect and disconnect the sacred and the worldly just as we connected and disconnected reality from our own mental constructs of it. We need to see the relationship between signifier and signified. We might thus look at the entire universe as a symbol of the creator. In this case the direction of reference is somewhat different because, in this case, we recognize the sacred through the worldly. This can happen because it is through the universe that we acquire knowledge about the sacred. {{}} [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 20 33 32 2009-05-06T06:41:04Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The Muslim World has had its problematic relationship with text. It did not see that the text was removed from reality by language, a' fact which must be analyzed further to bring back a positive role for the sacred texts rather than the debilitating role they play presently. We see a radically different attitude toward the text from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who was explaining to Ziad ibn Labeed some misfortunes that were going to befall Muslims. He said, "And that [misfortune] would take place when knowledge dissolves." Ziad ibn Labeed, the companion said: "How could knowledge dissolve while we study the Qur'an and we teach it to our children and our children will teach it to their children?" The Prophet responded, "Woe unto you Ibn Labeed. I thought of you as one of the bright minds of Madina. Are not the Torah and the Bible in the hands of the Jews and the Christians, who are reading them but are not benefiting from their content?!1" In this exchange between the Prophet and his companion, we see a methodic and objective dialogue. Here, the Prophet is not speaking of metaphysical realities or revealed truth. Rather, he is talking about a lived reality by making reference to history and social behavior. When his companion objects that knowledge cannot be lost while texts exist, the Prophet does not use a divine reference to prove his point, nor does he use his status as a prophet. Instead, he refers his companion to a witnessed society within which they live and to those who have lost the ability to benefit from their texts when they have neglected to observe reality outside text. The Prophet's presentation of the relationship of text to life is significant. He presents the issue as a social law and a social pattern in societies that lose touch with events and objective reality. These societies hold on to text and words without looking at what the words refer to2. Here we see how the Qur'an brings the issue of illiteracy to another level. According to the Qur'an, it is not necessarily a reference to persons who cannot read and write, but to those who halt before the letters of the words. Words are signifiers but what they signify is subject to change. The words "heaven" and "earth," for example, did not in themselves change in all world languages throughout the ages. What they refer to, and the mental perceptions these words trigger, have changed profoundly. Thus, text is a malleable entity. Hence, societies appropriate, empty, refill and even reinvent new meanings of text and what the text signifies. The problem of text lies in interpretation, and is intertwined with the way a society handles new information about the universe, life, history and society, because these same phenomena are not the signified realities to which these texts had once referred. Language itself is a making of the human mind. It is symbols that facilitate the transmission of information, just as societies invented currency to make financial transactions. The symbols themselves do not carry the meanings. By agreeing on the relationship between a symbol and what it refers to, we provide meaning. Thus, sometimes, the words do not correspond with our intentions. We might say that our trust is in God, when in reality it is in muscles and gold3. Yet, ultimately, our problems do not lie in any text or within the human person. Rather, they lie in our failure to present historical knowledge holistically, without discontinuities. We need to understand history on an evolutionary continuum, not as fragmented pieces, nor short glimpses of a given age. We have, throughout history, played with texts and words. However, history is irreverent to our mishaps and misinterpretations, for the laws that govern history do not change nor do they alter: "No change will you find in God's sunna (law and pattern). No alteration will you find in God's sunna." (Surah 35 Fatir: 43) Once we distinguish between the images and perceptions in our heads, on the one hand, and external events, on the other, and further understand the relationship between the two, we will come closer to solving humanity's problem. And once we can provide humanity with more authentic references and standards with more objectivity, we will open a path of benefit and utility for humanity4. By doing this, we can liberate humanity from the vagueness of text and the inherently inconstant nature of its meaning. And instead of rejecting text or reality, we will come to an understanding of the relationship that binds them, since text is a carrier of the meaning of reality and is in constant flux. This will lead to a different relationship between humanity and the universe. We will then see the universe as a creative source equal to our own curiosity and ability to utilize its resources. The problem in the human condition is humanity's inability and struggle to adapt to history, which supercedes humanity and leaves it behind. This is due to the prevalence of the arbitrary movement of knowledge beyond authority. The Prophets knew how to utilize human cognition, relating to it the meaning of the universe and succeeded in creating massive human movements. It is unfortunate that intellectuals, the inheritors of prophetic voice, have not yet succeeded or adapted to such capacity and skill. Intellectuals have lost the significance of sacredness or goodness in existence. We have to compete in inventing the simplest, most economic ways of creating a new consciousness that will construct a new paradigm. We are using here the notion of "paradigm" the way Thomas Kuhn used it in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, to present the structural evolution of science5. In the arms race, we see how ignorance is exploited in marketing obsolete commodities. It is unfortunate that we live in an age where there are too many parties willing to exploit the absence of consciousness instead of finding ways to spread it. The intellectual who is competent to perform the role of the messenger has not yet appeared and has not yet been able to utter the words of Moses: "look at the god you have been worshiping . . . ." (Surah 20 Ta Ha: 97) Muhammad Iqbal, the Pakistani poet and philosopher, discusses the crisis of the modern age in some of his writings. In one of his poems, he dreams about the intellectual who will play the role of Moses. Iqbal demands an intellectual who is concerned not with attacking religion but with analyzing the age in which we live, shaking its premises, exposing its foundations and stripping off its illusionary masks. Indeed, the illusions of the modern world are somewhat reminiscent of the works of Pharaoh's magicians who kept people captives. "Said Moses: `Throw you (first) so when they threw, they bewitched the eyes of the people, and struck terror into them: for they showed a great (fear of) magic.' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf 116)6 This represents the problematic relationship to text the Prophet was discussing with his companion. Thus, claims of human rights and equality, at the discursive level, do not represent actual events just the way sacred texts ceased to benefit their upholders. Our ideals are invalidated when we think we can govern the world with terror instead of knowledge, with coercion instead of compassion. A young woman, who was a graduate of a high academic institution, came to see me to inquire whether sorcery was true. She had come to believe that her mother-in-law bewitched her. I found myself telling her that sorcery is a global problem. Entire nations are bewitched, and the world's intellectuals leave people under the spell of the magic of force without exposing the mere sticks and ropes that it is, in just the way the magicians of Pharaoh deluded people about their power. When Louis Pasteur was looking in vinegar bottles to understand the way organic corruption occurs in biological entities, people were dying around him of different contagious diseases. But for Pasteur, mourning the dead was a less effective way of understanding the mechanisms of disease. Similarly, those who look into our cultural bottles will be able to discover the small mental entities spread in our intellectual food and sanctified cultures, enabling us to practice intellectual hygiene. Just as we discovered how to disinfect and pasteurize our food, we will be able to disinfect our cultural materials from the germs that lead to the murder of people at the hands of their own brothers. And as such, we should also find methods of mental anesthesia, so that our operations will be less painful when we remove harmful tissues, i.e., nullify harmful ideas and notions. When people were ignorant of germ theory and the mechanisms of disease, it was possible for one to catch a disease from a loved one who would cry and mourn his loss. We are still at that level culturally. People have always been preached to, during Sunday sermons, to love their enemies; yet, they did not feel the contradiction when they sanctioned the burning of those who disagreed with them in opinion. Has it become possible to place such an intellectual germ under the microscope? Is it yet possible to analyze and understand the cultural environment in which such a germ flourishes? We devote certain amounts of funds to researching AIDS and cancer to gain control over them. Most people are concerned and follow the results of such efforts closely. But do we yet have advanced consciousness and popular interest at similar levels for intellectual health?7 The World Health Organization published a booklet about "facts of life," which isolated ten known preventable diseases that take the lives of a quarter of a million infants per week in the world. Yet the difficulties in disseminating this information to the mothers, who take care of these children, means that we have not eradicated those diseases. The booklet describes how communicating this information in a simplified manner by various and repetitive sources would shift maternal convictions that would result in live-saving behavioral changes. Will we have experts who will determine the number of intellectual "diseases" which lead to bloodshed and the exiling of millions in the world? And more significantly, will the public have the will to ensure that such knowledge reaches mothers, so that they are convinced to instill those values in their children? We need to know the level of effort needed to reduce violence and each has to ask himself and herself, how can I contribute to the eradication of the disease of violence which has been left on its own to spread without needed intervention? In this article, I have tried to shed light on one disease, which I believe can be cured through the prophetic path. It is the disease of accepting coercion as a means to changing human behavior. Misinterpreting existence leads to nihilism and therefore to misunderstanding the human condition as well. We live in world that still largely thinks coercion and compulsion bring about results instead of justice and compassion. This misunderstanding has grown as the result of a misinterpretation of justice. People think justice is a form of loss while equality is a sacrifice of status and privilege. These fears represent the satanic world-view, which is based on hubris and condescension.8 The heart does not heal unless it is cleaned of conceit and its love of privilege. This healing cannot be accomplished without an understanding of human equality as a mathematical equation: the solution lies in ensuring the equality of both sides of the equation. Let those who do not believe this continue on their path, for the days will convince them how knowledge heals the heart and how big is the path it opens and how intense the life it provides the self. They will see how God provided "a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Gen 3:24)9 By understanding the interconnectedness of faith and knowledge, one connects earth and heaven, and religion no longer stays in the realm of preaching. Rather, through direct practical observation of reality, knowledge will turn into faith and faith into knowledge. Say: ::'''"Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endowed with understanding that recollect." '''(Surah 39 Al Zumar: 9) ==Footnotes== 1 . Note: this Hadith is from Masnad Ibn Ahxnad, and was corrected in the "Tafseer" of Ibn Katheer in Surat 5 Ma'idah: 59: 66. 2 The Qur'an also provides a definition of the illiterate person, who espouses this attitude towards text: b"And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing conjecture." Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 78. 3 For example, the Bible says: What hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you: This people pays me lip.service, but their heart is far from me. Matt 15:7-8. HEAR how wisdom calls and understanding lifts her voice . . . . `For wisdom is better than red coral and no jewel can match her.' `I am wisdom, I bestow shrewdness and show the way to knowledge and discretion.' `My harvest is better than even than fine gold, and my revenue better than choice silver.' `I follow the course ofjustice and keep to the path of equity.' Prov 8:1, 11-12, 19-20. 4 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations and by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the springs of the deep burst forth and the clouds dropped dew. My son, safeguard soundjudgement and discretion; do not let them out of your sight. They will be a charm hung about your neck, and ornament to grace your throat. Then you will go on your way without a care, and your foot will not stumble. When you sit, you need have no fear; when you lie down, your sleep will be pleasant. Prov 19-24. 5 Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: U. of Chi. Press 1962). 6 "(Moses) said, `Nay, throw you first! Then behold their ropes and their rods-so it seemed to him on account of their magic-began to be in lively motion! "' Surah 20 Ta Ha: 66. 7 . In the World Health Organization, for example, there are detailed reports that criticize and expose military expenditures at the expense of other humane fields. This is a subtle move towards studying systematically the consequences of militancy. 8 As the Bible says: "Pride goes before disaster [destruction], and arrogance before a fall. Better live humbly with those in need than divide the spoil with the proud . . . but happy is he who puts his trust in the LORD." Prov 16:18-20. The Qur'an also says, "The Day whereon neither wealth nor children will avail. But only that (will prosper) that brings to God a sound (pure) heart." Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara': 88-89. 9 From the King James version. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 32 2009-05-06T06:40:05Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} The Muslim World has had its problematic relationship with text. It did not see that the text was removed from reality by language, a' fact which must be ana...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The Muslim World has had its problematic relationship with text. It did not see that the text was removed from reality by language, a' fact which must be analyzed further to bring back a positive role for the sacred texts rather than the debilitating role they play presently. We see a radically different attitude toward the text from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), who was explaining to Ziad ibn Labeed some misfortunes that were going to befall Muslims. He said, "And that [misfortune] would take place when knowledge dissolves." Ziad ibn Labeed, the companion said: "How could knowledge dissolve while we study the Qur'an and we teach it to our children and our children will teach it to their children?" The Prophet responded, "Woe unto you Ibn Labeed. I thought of you as one of the bright minds of Madina. Are not the Torah and the Bible in the hands of the Jews and the Christians, who are reading them but are not benefiting from their content?!1" In this exchange between the Prophet and his companion, we see a methodic and objective dialogue. Here, the Prophet is not speaking of metaphysical realities or revealed truth. Rather, he is talking about a lived reality by making reference to history and social behavior. When his companion objects that knowledge cannot be lost while texts exist, the Prophet does not use a divine reference to prove his point, nor does he use his status as a prophet. Instead, he refers his companion to a witnessed society within which they live and to those who have lost the ability to benefit from their texts when they have neglected to observe reality outside text. The Prophet's presentation of the relationship of text to life is significant. He presents the issue as a social law and a social pattern in societies that lose touch with events and objective reality. These societies hold on to text and words without looking at what the words refer to2. Here we see how the Qur'an brings the issue of illiteracy to another level. According to the Qur'an, it is not necessarily a reference to persons who cannot read and write, but to those who halt before the letters of the words. Words are signifiers but what they signify is subject to change. The words "heaven" and "earth," for example, did not in themselves change in all world languages throughout the ages. What they refer to, and the mental perceptions these words trigger, have changed profoundly. Thus, text is a malleable entity. Hence, societies appropriate, empty, refill and even reinvent new meanings of text and what the text signifies. The problem of text lies in interpretation, and is intertwined with the way a society handles new information about the universe, life, history and society, because these same phenomena are not the signified realities to which these texts had once referred. Language itself is a making of the human mind. It is symbols that facilitate the transmission of information, just as societies invented currency to make financial transactions. The symbols themselves do not carry the meanings. By agreeing on the relationship between a symbol and what it refers to, we provide meaning. Thus, sometimes, the words do not correspond with our intentions. We might say that our trust is in God, when in reality it is in muscles and gold3. Yet, ultimately, our problems do not lie in any text or within the human person. Rather, they lie in our failure to present historical knowledge holistically, without discontinuities. We need to understand history on an evolutionary continuum, not as fragmented pieces, nor short glimpses of a given age. We have, throughout history, played with texts and words. However, history is irreverent to our mishaps and misinterpretations, for the laws that govern history do not change nor do they alter: "No change will you find in God's sunna (law and pattern). No alteration will you find in God's sunna." (Surah 35 Fatir: 43) Once we distinguish between the images and perceptions in our heads, on the one hand, and external events, on the other, and further understand the relationship between the two, we will come closer to solving humanity's problem. And once we can provide humanity with more authentic references and standards with more objectivity, we will open a path of benefit and utility for humanity4. By doing this, we can liberate humanity from the vagueness of text and the inherently inconstant nature of its meaning. And instead of rejecting text or reality, we will come to an understanding of the relationship that binds them, since text is a carrier of the meaning of reality and is in constant flux. This will lead to a different relationship between humanity and the universe. We will then see the universe as a creative source equal to our own curiosity and ability to utilize its resources. The problem in the human condition is humanity's inability and struggle to adapt to history, which supercedes humanity and leaves it behind. This is due to the prevalence of the arbitrary movement of knowledge beyond authority. The Prophets knew how to utilize human cognition, relating to it the meaning of the universe and succeeded in creating massive human movements. It is unfortunate that intellectuals, the inheritors of prophetic voice, have not yet succeeded or adapted to such capacity and skill. Intellectuals have lost the significance of sacredness or goodness in existence. We have to compete in inventing the simplest, most economic ways of creating a new consciousness that will construct a new paradigm. We are using here the notion of "paradigm" the way Thomas Kuhn used it in his book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, to present the structural evolution of science5. In the arms race, we see how ignorance is exploited in marketing obsolete commodities. It is unfortunate that we live in an age where there are too many parties willing to exploit the absence of consciousness instead of finding ways to spread it. The intellectual who is competent to perform the role of the messenger has not yet appeared and has not yet been able to utter the words of Moses: "look at the god you have been worshiping . . . ." (Surah 20 Ta Ha: 97) Muhammad Iqbal, the Pakistani poet and philosopher, discusses the crisis of the modern age in some of his writings. In one of his poems, he dreams about the intellectual who will play the role of Moses. Iqbal demands an intellectual who is concerned not with attacking religion but with analyzing the age in which we live, shaking its premises, exposing its foundations and stripping off its illusionary masks. Indeed, the illusions of the modern world are somewhat reminiscent of the works of Pharaoh's magicians who kept people captives. "Said Moses: `Throw you (first) so when they threw, they bewitched the eyes of the people, and struck terror into them: for they showed a great (fear of) magic.' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf 116)6 This represents the problematic relationship to text the Prophet was discussing with his companion. Thus, claims of human rights and equality, at the discursive level, do not represent actual events just the way sacred texts ceased to benefit their upholders. Our ideals are invalidated when we think we can govern the world with terror instead of knowledge, with coercion instead of compassion. A young woman, who was a graduate of a high academic institution, came to see me to inquire whether sorcery was true. She had come to believe that her mother-in-law bewitched her. I found myself telling her that sorcery is a global problem. Entire nations are bewitched, and the world's intellectuals leave people under the spell of the magic of force without exposing the mere sticks and ropes that it is, in just the way the magicians of Pharaoh deluded people about their power. When Louis Pasteur was looking in vinegar bottles to understand the way organic corruption occurs in biological entities, people were dying around him of different contagious diseases. But for Pasteur, mourning the dead was a less effective way of understanding the mechanisms of disease. Similarly, those who look into our cultural bottles will be able to discover the small mental entities spread in our intellectual food and sanctified cultures, enabling us to practice intellectual hygiene. Just as we discovered how to disinfect and pasteurize our food, we will be able to disinfect our cultural materials from the germs that lead to the murder of people at the hands of their own brothers. And as such, we should also find methods of mental anesthesia, so that our operations will be less painful when we remove harmful tissues, i.e., nullify harmful ideas and notions. When people were ignorant of germ theory and the mechanisms of disease, it was possible for one to catch a disease from a loved one who would cry and mourn his loss. We are still at that level culturally. People have always been preached to, during Sunday sermons, to love their enemies; yet, they did not feel the contradiction when they sanctioned the burning of those who disagreed with them in opinion. Has it become possible to place such an intellectual germ under the microscope? Is it yet possible to analyze and understand the cultural environment in which such a germ flourishes? We devote certain amounts of funds to researching AIDS and cancer to gain control over them. Most people are concerned and follow the results of such efforts closely. But do we yet have advanced consciousness and popular interest at similar levels for intellectual health?7 The World Health Organization published a booklet about "facts of life," which isolated ten known preventable diseases that take the lives of a quarter of a million infants per week in the world. Yet the difficulties in disseminating this information to the mothers, who take care of these children, means that we have not eradicated those diseases. The booklet describes how communicating this information in a simplified manner by various and repetitive sources would shift maternal convictions that would result in live-saving behavioral changes. Will we have experts who will determine the number of intellectual "diseases" which lead to bloodshed and the exiling of millions in the world? And more significantly, will the public have the will to ensure that such knowledge reaches mothers, so that they are convinced to instill those values in their children? We need to know the level of effort needed to reduce violence and each has to ask himself and herself, how can I contribute to the eradication of the disease of violence which has been left on its own to spread without needed intervention? In this article, I have tried to shed light on one disease, which I believe can be cured through the prophetic path. It is the disease of accepting coercion as a means to changing human behavior. Misinterpreting existence leads to nihilism and therefore to misunderstanding the human condition as well. We live in world that still largely thinks coercion and compulsion bring about results instead of justice and compassion. This misunderstanding has grown as the result of a misinterpretation of justice. People think justice is a form of loss while equality is a sacrifice of status and privilege. These fears represent the satanic world-view, which is based on hubris and condescension.8 The heart does not heal unless it is cleaned of conceit and its love of privilege. This healing cannot be accomplished without an understanding of human equality as a mathematical equation: the solution lies in ensuring the equality of both sides of the equation. Let those who do not believe this continue on their path, for the days will convince them how knowledge heals the heart and how big is the path it opens and how intense the life it provides the self. They will see how God provided "a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Gen 3:24)9 By understanding the interconnectedness of faith and knowledge, one connects earth and heaven, and religion no longer stays in the realm of preaching. Rather, through direct practical observation of reality, knowledge will turn into faith and faith into knowledge. Say: ::'''"Are those equal, those who know and those who do not know? It is those who are endowed with understanding that recollect." '''(Surah 39 Al Zumar: 9) 1 . Note: this Hadith is from Masnad Ibn Ahxnad, and was corrected in the "Tafseer" of Ibn Katheer in Surat 5 Ma'idah: 59: 66. 2 The Qur'an also provides a definition of the illiterate person, who espouses this attitude towards text: b"And there are among them illiterates, who know not the Book, but (see therein their own) desires, and they do nothing conjecture." Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 78. 3 For example, the Bible says: What hypocrites! How right Isaiah was when he prophesied about you: This people pays me lip.service, but their heart is far from me. Matt 15:7-8. HEAR how wisdom calls and understanding lifts her voice . . . . `For wisdom is better than red coral and no jewel can match her.' `I am wisdom, I bestow shrewdness and show the way to knowledge and discretion.' `My harvest is better than even than fine gold, and my revenue better than choice silver.' `I follow the course ofjustice and keep to the path of equity.' Prov 8:1, 11-12, 19-20. 4 By wisdom the LORD laid the earth's foundations and by understanding he set the heavens in place; by his knowledge the springs of the deep burst forth and the clouds dropped dew. My son, safeguard soundjudgement and discretion; do not let them out of your sight. They will be a charm hung about your neck, and ornament to grace your throat. Then you will go on your way without a care, and your foot will not stumble. When you sit, you need have no fear; when you lie down, your sleep will be pleasant. Prov 19-24. 5 Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: U. of Chi. Press 1962). 6 "(Moses) said, `Nay, throw you first! Then behold their ropes and their rods-so it seemed to him on account of their magic-began to be in lively motion! "' Surah 20 Ta Ha: 66. 7 . In the World Health Organization, for example, there are detailed reports that criticize and expose military expenditures at the expense of other humane fields. This is a subtle move towards studying systematically the consequences of militancy. 8 As the Bible says: "Pride goes before disaster [destruction], and arrogance before a fall. Better live humbly with those in need than divide the spoil with the proud . . . but happy is he who puts his trust in the LORD." Prov 16:18-20. The Qur'an also says, "The Day whereon neither wealth nor children will avail. But only that (will prosper) that brings to God a sound (pure) heart." Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara': 88-89. 9 From the King James version. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 50 119 2009-08-23T10:19:32Z Admin 1 moved [[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] to [[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] 0 63 172 171 2010-10-13T12:30:41Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. ''' I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. I may mention here that it is fortunate that I propound my idea at this juncture in time, when mankind happens to be primed for comprehending the method of Adam's son. Humankind has almost understood, through lots and lots of suicidal trials, that violence is just not the way. For my part, I have devoted all my humble effort to bringing this fact to the notice of humankind. I have no doubt that later studies will greatly overshadow my effort. My only accomplishment would be then that I have shaken the sleepers to open their eyes and see things from a vantage point that they had never suspected to exist. {| | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foreword|Foreword]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS|INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions|Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Specialization and Organizations|Specialization and Organizations]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Power and Knowledge Again|Power and Knowledge Again]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge|Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict|The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference|Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!|No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son|About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Problem of Doing Mischief|Adam's son and the Problem of Doing Mischief]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: You Are Mere Humans|You Are Mere Humans]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds|The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Dreading Knowledge|Dreading Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Guidance and Misguidance|Guidance and Misguidance]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN|CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will|The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human and Awareness About History|A Human and Awareness About History]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Where Are You, Bilal?|Where Are You, Bilal?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Prophets and Mercy|The Prophets and Mercy]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Law of the Better and More Enduring|The Law of the Better and More Enduring]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit|To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Self-analysis|Self-analysis]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Changing a Government and Changing Ideas|Changing a Government and Changing Ideas]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foucault and History as Reference|Foucault and History as Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Language Is the Problem|Language Is the Problem]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Muslims and Making Peace|Muslims and Making Peace]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION|CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human Between Purity and Murkiness|A Human Between Purity and Murkiness]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Utterances and Concepts|Utterances and Concepts]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The End of the Age of Heroes|The End of the Age of Heroes]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?|Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood|The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The United Nations and the Tribal System|The United Nations and the Tribal System]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an|History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an]] |} [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 171 170 2010-10-13T12:29:22Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. ''' I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. I may mention here that it is fortunate that I propound my idea at this juncture in time, when mankind happens to be primed for comprehending the method of Adam's son. Humankind has almost understood, through lots and lots of suicidal trials, that violence is just not the way. For my part, I have devoted all my humble effort to bringing this fact to the notice of humankind. I have no doubt that later studies will greatly overshadow my effort. My only accomplishment would be then that I have shaken the sleepers to open their eyes and see things from a vantage point that they had never suspected to exist. {| | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foreword|Foreword]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS|INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions|Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Specialization and Organizations|Specialization and Organizations]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Power and Knowledge Again|Power and Knowledge Again]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge|Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict|The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference|Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!|No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Problem of Doing Mischief]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: You Are Mere Humans|You Are Mere Humans]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds|The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Dreading Knowledge|Dreading Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Guidance and Misguidance|Guidance and Misguidance]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN|CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will|The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human and Awareness About History|A Human and Awareness About History]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Where Are You, Bilal?|Where Are You, Bilal?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Prophets and Mercy|The Prophets and Mercy]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Law of the Better and More Enduring|The Law of the Better and More Enduring]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit|To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Self-analysis|Self-analysis]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Changing a Government and Changing Ideas|Changing a Government and Changing Ideas]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foucault and History as Reference|Foucault and History as Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Language Is the Problem|Language Is the Problem]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Muslims and Making Peace|Muslims and Making Peace]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION|CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human Between Purity and Murkiness|A Human Between Purity and Murkiness]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Utterances and Concepts|Utterances and Concepts]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The End of the Age of Heroes|The End of the Age of Heroes]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?|Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood|The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The United Nations and the Tribal System|The United Nations and the Tribal System]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an|History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an]] |} [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 170 169 2010-10-13T12:22:03Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. ''' I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. I may mention here that it is fortunate that I propound my idea at this juncture in time, when mankind happens to be primed for comprehending the method of Adam's son. Humankind has almost understood, through lots and lots of suicidal trials, that violence is just not the way. For my part, I have devoted all my humble effort to bringing this fact to the notice of humankind. I have no doubt that later studies will greatly overshadow my effort. My only accomplishment would be then that I have shaken the sleepers to open their eyes and see things from a vantage point that they had never suspected to exist. {| | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foreword|Foreword]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS|INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions|Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Specialization and Organizations|Specialization and Organizations]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Power and Knowledge Again|Power and Knowledge Again]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge|Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict|The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference|Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!|No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Problem of Doing Mischief]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: You Are Mere Humans|You Are Mere Humans]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds|The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Dreading Knowledge|Dreading Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Guidance and Misguidance|Guidance and Misguidance]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN|CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will|The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human and Awareness About History|A Human and Awareness About History]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Where Are You, Bilal?|Where Are You, Bilal?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Prophets and Mercy|The Prophets and Mercy]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Law of the Better and More Enduring|The Law of the Better and More Enduring]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit|To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Self-analysis|Self-analysis]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Changing a Government and Changing Ideas|Changing a Government and Changing Ideas]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foucault and History as Reference|Foucault and History as Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Language Is the Problem|Language Is the Problem]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Muslims and Making Peace|Muslims and Making Peace]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION|CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human Between Purity and Murkiness|A Human Between Purity and Murkiness]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Utterances and Concepts|Utterances and Concepts]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The End of the Age of Heroes|The End of the Age of Heroes]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?|Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood|The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The United Nations and the Tribal System|The United Nations and the Tribal System]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an|History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an]] |} [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 169 168 2010-10-13T12:01:47Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. ''' I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. I may mention here that it is fortunate that I propound my idea at this juncture in time, when mankind happens to be primed for comprehending the method of Adam's son. Humankind has almost understood, through lots and lots of suicidal trials, that violence is just not the way. For my part, I have devoted all my humble effort to bringing this fact to the notice of humankind. I have no doubt that later studies will greatly overshadow my effort. My only accomplishment would be then that I have shaken the sleepers to open their eyes and see things from a vantage point that they had never suspected to exist. {| | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foreword|Foreword]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS|INTRODUCTORY: THE LANGUAGE OF WORDS AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONCEPTS]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions|Adam's son and the Quibbling Factions]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER ONE: POWER AND KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Specialization and Organizations|Specialization and Organizations]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Power and Knowledge Again|Power and Knowledge Again]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge|Authority, Physical Strength, and Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict|The Physical Conflict and the Intellectual Conflict]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference|Abraham: The Forefathers Are not the Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!|No Obedience in Defiance of God's Command!]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE|CHAPTER TWO: DREADING KNOWLEDGE]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son About the Birth of the Idea of Follow the Example of Adam's son]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Adam's son and the Problem of Doing Mischief]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: You Are Mere Humans]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Visible Events and the Events Inside the Minds]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Dreading Knowledge]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Guidance and Misguidance]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Qur'an and Attributing Trespasses to God's Will]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human and Awareness About History]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Where Are You, Bilal?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Prophets and Mercy]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Law of the Better and More Enduring]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: To Love the Short-term Benefit and to Disregard the Long-tem Benefit]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Self-analysis|Self-analysis]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Changing a Government and Changing Ideas|Changing a Government and Changing Ideas]] | *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Foucault and History as Reference|Foucault and History as Reference]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Language Is the Problem|Language Is the Problem]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Muslims and Making Peace|Muslims and Making Peace]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION|CHAPTER SIX: LESSONS FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: A Human Between Purity and Murkiness|A Human Between Purity and Murkiness]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Utterances and Concepts|Utterances and Concepts]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The End of the Age of Heroes|The End of the Age of Heroes]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?|Can Civilizations Challenge Perdition?]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood|The Criterion for Truth and Falsehood]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: The United Nations and the Tribal System|The United Nations and the Tribal System]] *[[Be Like Adam's Son: History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an|History as the Reference for Acquiring Knowledge According to the Qur'an]] |} [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 168 2010-10-13T11:13:49Z Admin 1 Created page with ''''Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. ''' I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on thi...' wikitext text/x-wiki '''Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. ''' I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. I may mention here that it is fortunate that I propound my idea at this juncture in time, when mankind happens to be primed for comprehending the method of Adam's son. Humankind has almost understood, through lots and lots of suicidal trials, that violence is just not the way. For my part, I have devoted all my humble effort to bringing this fact to the notice of humankind. I have no doubt that later studies will greatly overshadow my effort. My only accomplishment would be then that I have shaken the sleepers to open their eyes and see things from a vantage point that they had never suspected to exist. {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 95 205 2010-10-15T21:39:52Z Admin 1 Created page with 'A human can come to a state when he/she no longer can benefit from events that happen before his/her very eyes. This is a human, who can rise to have everything bend to his/her w...' wikitext text/x-wiki A human can come to a state when he/she no longer can benefit from events that happen before his/her very eyes. This is a human, who can rise to have everything bend to his/her will, and can fall to a point when he/she is less worthy than the humblest of animals. So do we have the means to have a human opt for the better way? Can we purge spirits that have been tarnished? It is basically the prophets' duty, but we have to take it up, and do not say who am I to do it? There has been Bilal to teach you not to underrate yourself. Do not say that it must come from God, for God has willed that we start before His guidance comes. There are precedents enough, and examples enough, and the way of the prophets is with us. The world, too, is primed for it, and millions of unsullied spirits are ushered into the world all the time. But we need to present things with so much vividness that no sane person affords to ignore them. Hence my example about the European Union. For here we have a union that was brought about without any party patronizing or rising above others; it was done on a footing of equality. It is not a stain on it that people have sought material benefit, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, says: "Much good will good money do for a good man." (Reported by Ahmad, and by al-Bukhari in his al-Adab al-Mufrad). It is a big problem, however, if money or status is used to subdue and intimidate others. All the prophets, from Noah until Muhammad, would not accept any charges for their service (as the Qur'an tells us in for example 26:109; 52:40). It must be crystal clear to people that you, the reformer, do not expect any material gain for your advice. On the other hand, the Gulf War was for nothing but material gain. Well, let those who wage such wars not do it in the name of the prophets, for the prophets were not so base. You see what happens to a people who have the wealth but not the knowledge – their money goes down the gutter. So please, reformers, do not try to gain money through your guidance; let the other feel that you are more likely to help with your money than to covet his/her money. That is what one learns from the Qur'an. I do realize how tremendous the challenge is, but I hope to put right, with all those who accept to take part in the effort, all that has been corrupted. And every time the endeavor will have to start with changing the attitudes and concepts, particularly pride and aggression. This much we learn from the Qur'an. It is something like rediscovering agriculture, for what happens now is something like cutting off the trees, and we need to plant them. It is hard, but feasible. Let me say here that my job is breeding bees for their honey. And I well remember how, not a very long time ago, the way to collecting honey used to be by killing the bees. It is not a human who taught the bees to produce honey; and then a human came and killed the bees for the honey. But man learned that he does not need to kill the bees, for he can get the honey without killing. Is not this change admirable? But when can we deal with a human in the same way; when can we get a human's honey without having to kill him/her? Did not humankind take control of electricity, not an easy task, and subdued it for serving his purposes? If the reader does not get the message here, then it must be my fault. I do have a glimpse of the fascinating other world, but maybe I have not succeeded in bringing it to the notice of the reader. I do see how greatly honored by God a human is! Can you imagine more honoring than enabling a human to have a say in determining the shape of things in the world? The whole world has been put at the service of man. By studying the past, a human is endowed with unlimited potentials and abilities. This much I have learned from history. Those who think that the world has been created for no purpose are not being fair to God; that is what we learn from the Qur'an, "Men who … contemplate the wonders of creation in the heavens and the earth, with the thought: 'Our Lord! You have created all this not for nothing.'" (3:191) And it is our duty to remove the scales from people's eyes. That is the kind of change of souls that is our duty, and it is feasible. Remember that, according to the Qur'an, despair is coupled with disbelief. It is disbelief to sit back and desist from putting in your effort. Disbelief is the creed of the inert and desperate. O man! You are anxious, but you have a history, and you are a very distinguished being, and you have a future. And your God is Merciful and Compassionate. You just turn on the light, and you will see how the darkness will vanish. Learn the laws of the world and you have control over it. What got into you that you think of destruction and malice? You have been placed in the earth to develop it, not to destroy it. Observe a sick person before treatment and after treatment! See what happens after the sick person has taken the right medicine. You see his face, how bright and lively. That is your task in the sphere of knowledge, to bring the smile back to people's faces. People will look back then and wonder how they lived so long without the light of knowledge. It is like magic, that change. A human does lose his/her way when he/she rushes things, and tries to reap the fruit before it is ripe. Of course that is not the same thing as seeking the easier and less costly way; it is our duty in fact to save time and effort. The starting point will be in the domain of a human's relation with other humans. It is so since many people think that with compulsion they can extract more good from a human, and that is great folly. Indeed, to think that with compulsion one can extract more of a human than with persuasion is the worst form of arrogance; it reflects thinking the worst both about God and about humankind. It is really a great waste, since one puts in a lot of time and effort, but reaps very little. Nor does it produce happiness for any party. So can we observe the European Union without arrogance, since we are urged by the Qur'an to move about in the earth and be alert to God's signs, "And how many Signs in the heavens and the earth do they pass by? yet they turn their faces away from them!" (12:105) Is it not a sign from God that these people have designed and executed their union without compulsion? An unprecedented event in human history! And the European Union did not descend from heaven. So must we not learn what happened to the Europeans that they were ready for this huge stride? Does not their feat follow laws of human behavior? It is definitely not what we are used to, not through conspiracy or secret ways; nor is it on the basis of Germany above all or France above all. It happened because something got into their minds, that the old ways would not lead to union, nor would any claims of greatness; they realized that it must be 'all for all'. They achieved it by accepting the supreme principle of faith, that we do not take others for gods, nor claim to be gods; that no one on earth has the right to assume a divine position. It is really an admirable option, the best option. It signifies not only that they no longer needed Napoleon or Hitler; it signifies that the culture that produced Napoleon and Hitler is something of the past. I think we now begin to believe that we do not need one person like Napoleon or Hitler, maybe unconsciously, but the change is coming over us. We begin to rid ourselves of the culture of compulsion, but the change must go further. When we do change we shall be in communion with God, and get to mature thinking. And when you succeed in ridding yourself of compulsion, it must be in both senses, in the sense of not compelling others to accept what you take to be true; and in the sense of not succumbing to anybody's attempt to compel you; since you are nobody's god, nor is any one but God your god, "You are not warder over them," as the Qur'an tells us (88:22). Unless you give up compelling or being compelled, you have not abandoned the way of compulsion. And the abandoning of compulsion, in both senses, does not call for a state or an army. This is what Bilal achieved; and if some do not appreciate his achievement, it is because they do not appreciate what it means to opt for good sense. Abraham told his people, as the Qur'an reports, "How should I fear the beings you associate with Allah, when you do not fear to give partners to Allah without any warrant being given to you? Which of us two parties has more right to security? Tell me if you know. It is those who believe and do not confuse their beliefs with wrong – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance." (6:81-82) He definitely has abandoned the domain of compulsion, in both senses. Compulsion is an idol that you need to give up for guidance to be admitted into your heart, and for the feeling of peace to settle in the heart. When one of the Prophet's companions was tormented to give up faith, the Prophet told him to agree with his tormentors with words, since his enemies had no control over his heart; they cannot compel his heart, and it is there where belief settles. So can we say now that compulsion cannot be the way to uprightness? Do we need more experiences and suffering after fourteen centuries? [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 84 194 2010-10-15T21:21:11Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Most people grow and get old and die without having awakened that yearning for integration; most die before they have experienced even once the exhilaration of learning the story...' wikitext text/x-wiki Most people grow and get old and die without having awakened that yearning for integration; most die before they have experienced even once the exhilaration of learning the story of human history. But how can we kindle that ecstasy in the hearts of many young men and young women? To bring this about is not really an act of magic. How will it dawn on them that humankind keeps correcting itself as time passes? To perceive the march of history is such a marvelous thing that it fills the heart with elation. Do not you see what it means to see the difference between seeing things happen at random and seeing the possibility of taking the change in hand and steering change to a more fruitful and profitable direction? That the truth dawns on even one mind is a precious thing, and the Qur'an treats it as such (as in 40:28 and the following verses; and in 36:20-21) Such individual achievements might be ignored in history, but not in the Qur'an. When you learn the precedents, it gives you a great incentive for future achievement. And what is history but a retaining of the good and elimination of the harmful or disadvantageous? Maybe it is clear by now that history is not a fulfillment of your or my fancies – it works by its own laws; and we have to go there to see the facts, and not to bring facts to fit our own fancies. It is true that so many people will try to twist the facts to fit their desire, but history will go ahead along its own course. As it does, it will make more and more distinction between what is right and what is wrong, between truth and falsehood. The only correct attitude to history is to realize that the truth is not what I think is true, but what history says is true. And of course the measure of anything's truth in history is the amount of good it brings about. The Qur'an accepts the result of something to be the criterion for its truth. A person who does not judge things according to the good or bad they realize will only be guided by his fancy and desire. The Qur'an's lesson is precious here: take history to be your reference of truth. I feel that I cannot say enough about the importance of this rule, that things are to be judged by their outcome. History teaches us so, and the Qur'an teaches us so. But even after repeating and reiterating, I feel that it will be long before people finally digest this lesson. Do not you see that God accepts this law to apply to Him and to His prophets – That the actual events of history are the reference? This shows you how grave the Muslims' mistake is in ignoring the facts of history, that is, the results of behaviors! How far they are from the Qur'an's handling of the events of history as a real lab of truth and falsehood! They still say that history is no more than a pack of lies, and the Qur'an deems it to be the guide to truth and a better life. Of course people will persist in denying the value of history as long as they are ignorant of it. Once they know, they will take history to be a temple for worshipping God through a study of His creation. We know that a human is accountable on the Day of Judgment for what he/she has done, but history shows a human that he/she is accountable in this world, before he/she encounters the more serious judgment in the Hereafter. Does this make us appreciate how huge a role history plays? It is no less than the Creator's law court, where people's acts are tried and sentences are given concerning each case. This is also what I meant when I said above that the Qur'an is readable from two different perspectives – now it may be seen that history is brought into being by God, but only in response to the values, norms, thoughts, and delusions of the participant agents. Well, granted that we are convinced of the importance of history, how do we enter this temple? How can we contrast the building of the pyramids of Egypt with Abraham's building the Ka'bah, the Holy House in Mecca? Was not Abraham the one who set the reference for telling the truth from falsehood, as we see in this dialogue reported in the Qur'an, "And rehearse to them something of Abraham's story. Behold , he said to his father and his people: 'What do you worship?' They said: 'We worship idols, and we remain constantly in attendance on them.' He said: 'Do they listen to you when you call on them, or do you good or harm?' They said: 'Nay, but we found our fathers doing this that we do.'" (26:70-74) For them, the way to judge is not to examine what benefit or harm something causes: if it was accepted by their fathers and forefathers, then it was good. Is not this same justification used by many nations – that something is good or bad in so far as the forefathers saw it to be so. While the criterion for Abraham was that what is true is what realizes benefits, and what is false is what is harmful. We may not deny, however, that what the past generations left us is partly true. Otherwise, we should always start from the time humans were in the caves. Of course, there is a golden mean here: how can we learn all there is to learn from the past generations, without their becoming a millstone round our necks that bends us down? Is it not Abraham, our great father, who taught us to stop sacrificing a human being, when he offered an animal instead? No wonder that God says, as we see in the Qur'an, "We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct." (21:51) The point is that we do not want to throw away the baby with the dirty water. When we fail to distinguish truth from falsehood, God will do the distinction, for history will sift things, and what is good will stay and what is harmful will be washed away. What we have in Abraham's experience with his people, when he set the rule for distinguishing what is true as being what is beneficial, and what is false as being what is harmful; this experience is putting to work God's law, "Thus Allah by parables throws forth Truth and vanity. For the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth. Thus Allah sets forth parables." (13:17) The rule here is that without writing we would not have had history, and without history, the actual events, the writing will lose its worth. I need to know all this as I try to lay the basis for a new trend in thinking, to evaluate science and knowledge; I need to pry well, to be nearer the truth. I have to keep an eye on the Scripture and an eye on the events of history. We need also to put in something here. Everybody knows about the profitable and harmful results when dealing with things whose results appear at once or very quickly. A child will soon learn to keep clear from fire after he burns his/her hand; but it is when a long time elapses between cause and effect that people lose sight of what led to what. It is this losing sight of the link between cause and effect that leads people to disregard history. The spans in history are not the same as the spans in the life of individuals. It is a different cycle. Of course we have the cycles in the electron, but how different they are from the cycles in galaxies! And, moving to human life, we know about the deferral of gratification, and how we use it to rank civilizations and cultures. I need to keep track of the way of Adam's son, but without history we cannot support the simple statement about the way of Adam's son. Now history used to be very slow, and then it picked speed, so that now the span between an event and its results can be very short. You may be sure of how important history is from the fact that once people took note of it, they no longer needed another book to be revealed from God. The Qur'an alerts us to that when it says about a certain episode of history, "There is, in their stories, instruction for men endued with understanding;" (12:111) and more generally, "Take warning, then, O you with eyes to see!" (59:2) So let those who do not give history its worth suffer its blows; blows in the form of tears, blood, and the lamentations of parents, sisters, and children! You see how the people who know nothing about history spend hordes of money on worthless projects, instead of investing more in knowledge, knowledge and science and an in-depth study of religion. The problem is that we not only wade in our ignorance, but we even are too terrified to enter the domain of knowledge. Is that what we think about God, that should we learn more about truth we would be farther from God? I know I have come close to truth, but can I touch it? [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 76 186 2010-10-15T21:10:07Z Admin 1 Created page with 'After the publication of my first book, The Way of Adam's son (in the mid-1960s), I was urged to write a sequel to it. That first book was brought out in a kind of hurry, as I fe...' wikitext text/x-wiki After the publication of my first book, The Way of Adam's son (in the mid-1960s), I was urged to write a sequel to it. That first book was brought out in a kind of hurry, as I felt at the time that something had to be said, before the uproar around me would submerge any sober talking. When, in 1990 I was invited to lecture in Sharjah, my host, Muhammad Salem al-Qasimee reminded me that my first book was, in my own words, just for proclamation; therefore, I was morally bound to bring out something, "for persuasion this time." Several others kept exhorting, but I somehow kept procrastinating. And then, when my sister Laila succeeded at last in having me visit them in Canada in 1995, and after a visit to the United States, she put in front of me a sheaf of papers and said, "It is time you started." When I held the pen early next morning I felt I had the same feeling as I had at writing my first book, that a human's problem was in doing mischief, in not having learned the lesson of Adam's son. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 73 183 2010-10-15T21:07:03Z Admin 1 Created page with 'It will be useful to remember Abraham, as the progenitor of the universal law: that the forefathers are not the reference; the reference is in how much good or mischief something...' wikitext text/x-wiki It will be useful to remember Abraham, as the progenitor of the universal law: that the forefathers are not the reference; the reference is in how much good or mischief something will do. It is not only a law of worship; it is the law of history; it is even the law of what is enjoined and what is forbidden in religion. When God prohibits alcoholic drinks and lottery, He makes it clear that they are forbidden for they do more harm than good: "They ask you concerning wine and gambling. Say: 'In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the benefit;'" (2:219) and somewhere else: "Intoxicants and gambling, dedication of stones, and divination by arrows, are an abomination, of Shaitan's handiwork: eschew such abomination, that you may prosper." (5:90). And about both the permitted and the forbidden: "for he commands them what is just and forbids them what is evil." (7:57) Therefore, it was stated by some Muslim jurists: "That which is beneficial, in all or in most cases, is enjoined; and that which is harmful, in all or in most cases, is forbidden." We find the same law in the Bible: "For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes." (Luke, 6:44) The followers of all three religions, Jews, Christians and Muslims tend to believe that they are privileged, but the Qur'an assures us that there is no lineage to God that does us good, "Not your desires, nor those of the People of the Book can prevail: whoever works evil, will be requited accordingly." (4:123) But though Abraham did lay the law, men have not benefited much from it; they still hold on to some reference other than that of what does good and what does harm. There were great men, though, who urged people not to let their idolization of their forefathers impede their going forward and dealing with things in a realistic manner. Toynbee, the great historian, identifies six personalities who have been, and still are the most influential. Four of them are Confucius, the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad. And he finds the common factor among their messages to be that they called on men to renounce their idolization of society. It has been a landmark of human history when some came upon this principle of renouncing the forefather's position as reference, a kind of idolization. But it has not yet taken root in the world. And the Veto Right that we still find in the highest council in the world, the UN Security Council, is another manifestation of idolization. The principle here is the same as that of the primitive people's: As long as I am stronger, then we are not equal as human beings. It is a fact about human beings that as long as they are the weaker party, they call for equality and justice. So let each one of us test himself/herself to see if he/she can accept to deal with the other on an equal footing when he/she happens to be in stronger position. But when we accept the principle of distinguishing the intellectual conflict from the physical one, we can accept to deal with people even-handedly. One must test himself/herself with regard to the prophets' stance when they said, as the Qur'an reports, "We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you may cause us;" (14:12) and "Rejected were the Messengers before you: with patience and constancy they bore their rejection and their wrongs, until Our aid reached them." (6:34) A major test to our holding to the value of ideas is when we do have the upper hand – will we then use force to stifle other ideas than our own? Muslim history is a witness that we again and again suppressed the opposing ideas. So will you stand the others' giving you the lie? And will you hold on to putting up ideas to counter ideas? Are you sure to restrain yourself from any resorting to physical conflict in that case? Another point in this connection is that even if one comes out victorious in the conflict of ideas, and without any intervention of physical force, his/her battle is not finally won! To conform to ideas after one has won his/her battle is even harder than at the time he/she used to be weak. About that we may cite this debate between Moses and his people, as reported by the Qur'an: "they said: 'We have had nothing but trouble, both before and after you came to us.' He said: 'It may be that your Lord will destroy your enemy and make you inheritors in the earth: that so He may try you by your deeds.'" (7:129) I hope you appreciate now why I say that the age of the prophets has not yet come, that their call is still in the womb of history. But that it will come out into light is a certainty. How vast a stride humankind had gone when it came to accept "Let there be no compulsion in religion!" Indeed the historian Toynbee admitted that the idea of "Let there be no compulsion in religion" was laid down a long time ago by Islam but "we in Britain did not accept it until quite recently." Well, but the idea is born. When an idea that is quite novel and unlike anything in people's consciousness and practice is born, then it will be received as odd or even perverse. Then a few, who have the talent to reflect, begin to take it up and to discuss it, then more people begin to accept it – and then there will be a time when people are so familiar with it that they no longer mention it. They behave in accordance with it as part of their subconscious. The idea of 'Let there be no compulsion in religion' (2:256) is already accepted in many parts of the world, but, paradoxically, not in the Muslim world, although it was revealed in their Scripture before any other nation was conscious of it. Muslims do assert that they accept it on the level of religions, but even there it has no root in our part of the world. The truth is that man is quite immature in the domain of ideas. The Muslims hold doggedly and tenaciously to compulsion in thought and politics, in the same way as they surrender to tyrants. Followers of the prophets, those who urge men to be just and fair are there in the world, but they are disunited and they do not manage to work in harmony. There is nothing like an authority or agency that keeps an eye on mischief and corruption in the world. Those who know enough to uphold the prophets' message do not do what is incumbent on them; they do not seem to feel the heavy duty that is waiting for them to fulfill. How badly does humankind need to be reminded that they can be liberated from idolizing falsehood, and are capable of standing for truth! At least those whose duty is to uphold justice and truth should exhort men not to be dragged into physical conflict in the name of supporting ideas, and not to be like a gun in the hand of the advocates of privileges, or a stick in the hands of the tyrant. It is a simple enough demand, but of such potent effect. Do you not see how all the armies of the world train their soldiers to be like guns in the hands of their commanders, like senseless beings that are devoid of discrimination or sensibility? That is more evidence that the prophets' age, that is their teachings, has not yet arrived. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 77 187 2010-10-15T21:11:22Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Even before Adam was created, the angels suspected, as the Qur'an reports, that he would be doing mischief, "Your Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth.' ...' wikitext text/x-wiki Even before Adam was created, the angels suspected, as the Qur'an reports, that he would be doing mischief, "Your Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth.' They said: 'Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? while we do celebrate Your praises and glorify Your holy name?' He said: 'I know what you do not know.'" (2:30) You may note here that they did not say that a human might prove to be a disbeliever in God and the Last Day; that they suspected him of spilling blood and doing mischief proves that this is the mother of all evil. And my guess is that men will someday in the future cast back their memory and say, "How strange people were, when they sacrificed human life. Thank God we got rid of this atrocious ritual!" It may be that Islam will be rediscovered at that time in the future. The events of history never cease to give their lessons, the more you read and reread about the past as the events of life accumulate. Now when the angels asked that question of theirs, God replied most laconically, "I know what you do not know." Immediately next to that, as the Qur'an tells us, "And He taught Adam the nature of [and naming of] all things." (2:31) We need people to write about this verse, about the relationship between learning about and giving names to things and getting over evil. We need first to have those who appreciate the importance of this knowledge that Adam was taught. Clearly, it was the thing that explained raising Adam above all other creatures. It is so because it is through knowledge, the ability to learn with signs and symbols, that Adam would be able to get rid of doing mischief and shedding blood. This major topic should be the preliminary science for understanding the condition of humankind, and a human's abilities. I believe we can go some steps in the direction of comprehending this situation by examining how humankind ascended, how they plodded along the long and arduous way of their ascent, how many men and women died, and how many suffered in the progress from where humankind was until it got to be what it is at present. This will give us a glimpse of how humans will develop towards a more decent condition in the future. We will also be in a position to determine what is required of us in that respect. We need to know what drives a human to adopt a particular attitude, for people do not look for sound arguments; they rather receive their direction from their culture. And so, we need to know what arguments will work in the particular cultural atmosphere we wish to change. The Qur'an does stress the importance of refreshing a human's memory, that a human is inclined to dismiss from memory the most vital facts. It reminds us that humans will come to a state when they no longer respond to admonition, and do not seem to comprehend at all. All these insights about humankind we urgently need, and we need to perceive how a human comes to a state when his/her deluded behavior seems good in his/her consideration, as the Qur'an states: "to whom the evil of his conduct is made alluring, so that he looks at it as good." (35:8) It is necessary that we understand what comes over man to make him willing to offer himself and others as sacrifices in order to preserve what is in his mind without change. Must not some young men and young women devote themselves to exploring this problem? Let them take note first of what the Qur'an says in that respect. Theses and dissertations need to focus on the various aspects of this topic: how common some features are, what conditions bring them on, and what conditions change them, what blurs vision in that respect, and so on. It would be often helpful that a young man/ young woman should study societies other than their own. We are more likely to see what is good and what is bad when we are dealing with other societies. It will be noted that there is a major difference between ailments of the body and mental troubles. It has been said that when we hear about a physical disease, we may wonder if we have it, but when we read or hear about a psychological problem, we seem to be sure that we do not suffer that trouble. Men are quick to notice shortcomings in others' characters, but not in their own. At best, they may be prepared to believe that they do have a certain shortcoming, but they would judge it to be quite insignificant. Some mystic sufis were more adept in this sacred area of divining the drawbacks of character; and of course some historians, cultural scientists, and psychologists can make some admirable insights in that respect. Comparing societies and cultures will lift some of the fogginess from people's vision, to help them see attitudes and conduct for what they are. As long as one is isolated, he/she will take his/her own culture to be superior, and perhaps as being favored by God; but one begins to see where his/her culture stands when he/she studies other cultures, and other religions, than his/she own. If he/she widens his/her horizon even further, probing several cultures and groups, he/she will see how really small the differences between communities are. It will be great after all the exploration to return to the Qur'an and restudy it with the new insights. One will then see how deluded any people are who claim to have a privileged place in heaven or on earth; he/she will come to appreciate Qur'anic verses like, "Both the Jews and Christians say: 'We are sons of God, and His beloved;'" (5:18) a Muslim will then come to see that if he/she takes himself/herself to have a special relation to God, then he/she is no better than the Christians or Jews. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 67 177 2010-10-15T20:59:01Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Over the ages we have seen how the Muslim factions, like the followers of other religions, have clashed with each other and killed each other in the name of their understanding o...' wikitext text/x-wiki Over the ages we have seen how the Muslim factions, like the followers of other religions, have clashed with each other and killed each other in the name of their understanding of religion. But we have a good model in Adam's son – for he announced his refusal to be a party in this vicious circle of killing and counter-killing. And when the Messenger, peace be upon him, told two of his companions, on two separate occasions, to keep aloof when people went into partisan fighting, was he demanding something that clashed with normal human nature? It is still a far cry to urge a Muslim adopt the way of Adam's son, for men still say that such stance goes contrary to humankind's instinct and inborn nature. And I fully realize that to overcome this concept it is not enough to cite verses of the Qur'an or traditions of the Prophet. But I do urge the Muslim to think of the following fact about the Qur'an: God does not mention the ruling concerning inheritance more than once or twice, but He mentions the facts of history scores of times. How often the Qur'an represents scenes from the lives of previous nations and peoples, what brought perdition to nations, what was the outcome of people's turning a blind ear to the facts of history, or denying that they could find in history any useful lessons! It will be a definite step forward when we take the events of history as our concrete evidence that the Qur'an is a book of truth. On the other hand we shall never be able to go forward as long as we take an arrogant stance towards history, and believe that we are somehow above its rules. When a people believe that they are exempted from the verdicts of history they will no longer give heed to its lessons. It was Satan who first boasted that what applied to others did not apply to him. Once you take your race, your nation, your tribe, or your creed not to be subject to the same laws as apply to others, that you have some special relationship with God or that you are of His own family, regardless of how you behave, then you will have chosen Satan's way. This disease of arrogance and pride is something that makes one condemned to exclusion from entering Paradise, for the Prophet, peace be upon him, says, "No human will enter Paradise in whose heart there is the least grain of pride." (Related by Muslim) It is for this flaw of haughtiness that Satan was ejected from heaven, as the Qur'an reports, (15:34-35). On the other hand Adam's son chose not to rise above the others; by holding his hand from assaulting the other, he announced his rejection of any kind of arrogance. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 71 181 2010-10-15T21:04:15Z Admin 1 Created page with 'When you see people of knowledge cringing before physical strength, you should know how unreliable, how poor in quality their knowledge is. They hardly know the laws that govern ...' wikitext text/x-wiki When you see people of knowledge cringing before physical strength, you should know how unreliable, how poor in quality their knowledge is. They hardly know the laws that govern the battle of understanding versus physical strength. As long as an intellectual can be tempted to enter into physical conflict in defense of his convictions, then he does not appreciate the value of knowledge – He does not perceive that intellectual power is indeed far greater than any physical power. Abraham, as his experience is recounted in the Qur'an, could not be misled there: "His people disputed with him. He said: 'Do you come to dispute with me, about Allah, when He Himself has guided me? I do not fear the beings you associate with Allah: unless my Lord wills, nothing can happen. My Lord comprehends in His knowledge all things. Will you not yourselves be admonished? How should I fear the beings you associate with Allah, when you do not fear to give partners to Allah without any warrant having been given to you? Which of us two parties has more right to security? Tell me if you know. It is those who believe and do not confuse their belief with wrong – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance.'" (6:80-82) By understanding the Abrahamic method and applying it, we can reverse the current of the power struggle; it will be as big a revolution in the social sphere as that of the revolutions in astronomy at the hands of Copernicus and Galileo, and the revolutions in biology. Let it be remembered how, for centuries and centuries, men thought that the sun revolved round the earth, and then it turned out that it is the other way round, that the earth goes round the sun. And in the same way, we still believe that knowledge is a satellite of physical power, while it is not so. When the truth will emerge here, as it emerged in astronomy, the scholar will cease to stand abashed in all abjection at the door of the ruler. Another fact that transpires from recalling the sun and the earth and which revolves around which is that the human brain is extremely likely to err, even when people are unanimously agreed on something; it is lifting our vision to the world around us that puts us right. The world never goes in accordance with our desires. At one stage, at the time of the Enlightenment they took a human to be the ultimate reference; they failed to see the unreliability of a human's intellect. But God points out the way, in Abraham's saying, "My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead," (2:260) and in the other verse: "There is nothing whatever like unto him." (42:11) The Qur'an tells us to look not within, but at the real world created by God. What the prophets taught was a new principle for dealing with a human, nothing like dealing with the rest of the universe. A human requires laws specific to him/her, for you change people by changing the contents of their mind – no need for spilling blood. It was something unprecedented and unheard of: you do not need to eliminate the human being; you only need to change what goes on inside his/her mind. Hence is the sacredness of the human soul in the Qur'an and the sunnah (the Prophet's traditions.) You do not kill the ill person, but you treat his disease. How deplorable it is that those who are supposed to help others change are often intent on eliminating those people in need of change. How often has this happened in the Muslims' history! Therefore I often say that what the prophets taught has not taken root as solid knowledge. But what many generations fail to comprehend will be comprehended at a certain stage of human maturity – and this is also another lesson we learn from the Qur'an: "And you shall certainly know the truth of it all after a while." (38:88) So we need to reflect again and again on that big news promulgated by the prophets, as the Qur'an reports: "'Concerning what are they disputing? Concerning the Great News." (78:1-2); and: "Say: 'This is a Message Supreme above all, from which you turn away!'" (38:67-68) [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 68 178 2010-10-15T21:00:14Z Admin 1 Created page with 'At each level, specialization, starting with the body organs, is vital for human life; and in the same way as the body organs work individually and collectively, experts and spec...' wikitext text/x-wiki At each level, specialization, starting with the body organs, is vital for human life; and in the same way as the body organs work individually and collectively, experts and specialists work in the social sphere as individuals and collectively, as organizations. But in either case a specialist must work for the good of society, in the same way as each organ of the body's works for the good of the whole body. Once an organ's activity is not in unison with the rest of organs, it turns into a sinister factor. Is not cancer an activity of the body's, with the only difference that it goes out of hand and does not work in unison with the rest of the body? To ask about the relationship between power or authority and knowledge, two specializations of society, is the same as asking about the thinking person and the acting person, the designer and the executive. In these pairs, efficient cooperation must be maintained for productive relation. Should action go ahead in disregard of thinking, it will not be fruitful; and in the same way, to think in disregard of action is to think in a vacuum. A human does some work first of all, then his/her work engenders some knowledge; and from observing how the performed action leads to certain results, cause and effect are connected, which is vital knowledge. In this way a human understands profitable and good action. Knowledge accumulates as a human observes the relationship between the cause and effect. Later, it often happens that knowledge is conveyed to others before they are involved in action. The logic of things in real terms is that action comes first, and then knowledge is engendered from observing action, from noting the effect that results from action. But as more connections of causes and effects are observed, they are recorded and transmitted as sciences and experiences. Those who ignore past experience will be losers in knowledge, and the quality of their action will be poor. We may reflect here on names and things, or designations and their referents. A human gets first to know something, and as his/her knowledge of the thing grows he/she assigns a designation to that thing. So in real terms, the referent occurs first, and at a certain stage it acquires a designation or name. But when we teach a child, we teach him/her with words before those words acquire a concrete sense. It must be clear from the above discussion that any attempt to separate knowledge from action is meaningless. Knowledge is the accumulation of action. We acquire experience from the accumulation of action, and that is knowledge and science. So much experience of early men must have been lost before men learned how to preserve it in vocal or optical mediums. Of course, a human had his/her brain to store his/her experience, but a brain decomposes with the death of the human, and so all its contents are lost; but when a human first used oral transmission of information, and later written expression, his/her experiments, and his/her memory, gained permanence. What men found out could now be revised and modified in the light of more experience. And now of course we analyze language in specialized sciences, like linguistics and semiotics. Let us make it clear that no matter how developed and sophisticated sciences grow, they must remain closely tied to the actual state of things in the world. Action must remain the source of knowledge. The Qur'an has urged a human to keep his/her eyes open (as in 11:6). We may refer to a tradition of the Prophet's as an illustration of this work-knowledge relationship. The tradition goes like this: "A believer may not be bitten twice from the same hole." (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim) What we have in this text is putting experience before knowledge, as it asserts that it is not compatible with faith that one falls in the same error twice. Knowledge is here seen to be learning from a certain experience that one has gone through. On the other hand, one may go forth into action of which he has had no precedent; but after going through the experience, one may make conclusions; and there is science for you! From this it must be seen that there is no direct answer as to which comes first, action or knowledge. This must help many people who give science precedence over action. The Qur'an would not let knowledge go in disregard of action (see for instance 19:96). But whenever we fail to find precedents, that is, when no scientific facts exist to shed light on our way, we feel forced to go again into a trial-and-error venture. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 94 204 2010-10-15T21:39:07Z Admin 1 Created page with 'I am aware that nothing but real events, visible to all those who have eyes to see, will drive home the idea. That is why I present here an example from recent history, as histor...' wikitext text/x-wiki I am aware that nothing but real events, visible to all those who have eyes to see, will drive home the idea. That is why I present here an example from recent history, as history is a great source of insight, for it provides the precedent. And it is God's will that men understand by moving about having their eyes and ears open to the lessons of what actually took place in the earth. It certainly saves people a lot of suffering, while disregarding history's facts will cost a very high toll. Now to my example. It shows you how sober and informed thinking is the way to a better life, not the best, but better than what we usually see. As I present this I regret that for many men, the signs before their eyes have no meaning at all, a condition which the Qur'an scolds: "And how many Signs in the heavens and the earth do they pass by? yet they turn their faces away from them!" (12:105). I refuse to disregard this experience, as millions of Muslims do. I do not remember to have come across an event like this, anywhere in history. It is so because those who undertook to design and execute it have taken very good care of its foundations and its objectives. They were well aware of the terrible suffering that they received and that was still alive in their memories. What I am writing about is the European Union. I have every reason to say it was unprecedented. It does not deter me that some Muslims will mock me and say: "What is this! Are you so fascinated by the Europeans?" But I do not work here on the basis of love and hate. For to proceed on the basis of love and hate will not help us see what is good and useful on the one hand, and the bad and useless on the other. It is also more usual for people to accept wholesale or to reject wholesale. We have a long way to go before we can reward people for the good they do, and just turn a blind eye to their misbehavior. What can you do when the people with the distinguished accomplishments are few and the froth is so thick? You are bound to say to the achiever: "Well done!" But the others' achievement has thrown us in a state of bewilderment and despondency. And history is there to charge us high for our ignorance, as everybody has seen in the Gulf war. But history can be kind, too. It is willing to offer its lessons free of charge. If you just go to history and ask for its lessons, it will be a dedicated teacher, but if you refuse, then it has its other ways of rendering its service. And even after you have paid dearly for your misconduct, be sure not to pay for it once again. The Prophet, peace be upon him, has warned us against this, "A believer will not be bitten twice from the same hole." (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim) However, we seem to need more than one war, and in the same way, to learn; but learn we must and will. One good thing about the last war is that some people seem to think more and analyze more; and people do not just condemn the politician for it. It is like the violent storm that uproots so many trees, though water will be seeping silently into earth to water new plants. But the Europeans had paid more for their experience, hundreds of millions in two world wars. There must be a lot of things written about their union, how it was devised as a transaction, with profits and losses calculated carefully. There must be comparisons between this even-handed transaction and the former attempts by men like Napoleon and Hitler who sought, most violently, to unite Europe, reaping nothing but havoc and devastation. This is the way of coercion which the Qur'an warns us against. But they learned to give up the wrong-headed way, and chose a well-guided way. It is the 'equity' that we find in the Qur'an, "O People of the Book! Come to common terms between us and you: that we worship none but Allah; that we associate no partners with Him." (3:64) The Europeans' is the solution in which no one is humiliated, all sides are winners, and no one loses his/her fortune or position; their wealth will rise collectively. Their status, inside and outside, will rise. Is it not an event that we witness in this world, and before our eyes? So it is for us now to have eyes and ears, and the Qur'an keeps reminding us that eyes should exercise their vision, and ears should exercise their hearing. But do not be desperate if you find Muslims incapable at the moment of hearing and seeing, for this is not a permanent condition. We must be part of the solution, by helping them see and hear, and not part of the problem. And there is no effort done in the right direction but will help us get there. Are you willing to bear with me? Remember that the target is building a new world! It only needs that we heed with open ears, and look with open eyes. Remember, too, that many have undergone a lot of laborious efforts to get us where we are; and so, let us accept the weariness that it takes us push the carriage along the road. We can imagine an objective like that of Jalal al-Deen al-Rumi's, who aspired, with his Mathnawi, to transform the whole world. He definitely did his share, and his work still bears its fruit. So did Iqbal have a tremendous impact on the world, and will have more. Such precedents help me go ahead, despite all my incapacity. What I am trying to tell the world is that there is a new dawn; the West is ready for this dawn, the dawn of equity, after they had paid dearly for all the folly of the past. And I am trying to get to the depth of the Muslim soul – among Muslims, it was the mystic sufis who penetrated there, and tried not to stop at the signs and outer appearance. They did their best to probe to the motives and the nooks and crevices of the soul and the contents of the minds. It is the mercy of God that He wants us to learn from past experiences, so that we do not undergo pain twice for the same experience. There are pains that can be spared; so why have unnecessary pain? Psychologists remind us that we bear many burdens that we do not need to bear, that if we succeeded in unburdening ourselves of those burdens we would be in better shape to face new problems. Indeed, the prophets came to remove many of our fetters and burdens. The idea is that with less burdens we can tackle life's problems more effectively. But what prevents people from choosing this less costly way? [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 82 192 2010-10-15T21:17:43Z Admin 1 Created page with 'CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN What I put forth in this chapter is not quite new. I did put forward a few ideas about it in an early book of mine, Until They Change W...' wikitext text/x-wiki CHAPTER THREE: TWO READINGS OF THE QUR'AN What I put forth in this chapter is not quite new. I did put forward a few ideas about it in an early book of mine, Until They Change What Is in Their Souls. It is a discussion of two readings of the Qur'an. We may read the Qur'an on the assumption that the events of history are brought about by God; and we may read the Qur'an on the assumption that the events of history are brought about by humankind, and that what happens is their responsibility. A scholar as distinguished as Muhammad Arkoun declares that the Qur'an asserts that history is shaped by God and not by humans, not even by prophets and reformers. When the confusion has reached this level I feel the urgency of taking it up. So let us begin with this example from the Qur'an, "Do you see that seed that you sow in the ground? Is it you that cause it to grow, or are We the Cause?" (56:63-64) and "Do you see then the human seed that you throw out? Is it you who create it, or are We the Creators?" (56:58-59) Indeed, it is God who created the trees, but then it is a human who arranged the orchard. And again, it is God who created humans, but without marriage, we would not have children. There is here something that belongs to God, and something that belongs to a human; in one aspect the thing is done by God, and in one aspect it is done by a human. It is God who has laid down the law, and it is a human who puts the law to use. So let us move from this to the events of history. About any historical event, and about any change we may notice, we say that it is God who creates the events of history, but He does that as men choose to apply His laws. Here again, in any event, there is one aspect that belongs to God, and there is an aspect that belongs to humankind. God does bring about the change, but upon a human doing the causes. It is something that Muslims should learn, these two readings of the Qur'an, and they should teach them to their children. We need this so that our children and we ourselves do not hold some people as holy. Unless people understand, they will hold some false and bad ideas about God and His signs, and will hold some persons as having a special relationship with God. Deluded, they will undervalue their own efforts. We have locations in the Qur'an where both aspects to events are mentioned together, as in "Because Allah will never change the Grace which He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their own souls," (8:53), and "Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change what is in their own souls." (13:11) About any blessing that people enjoy, good health, wealth, a life of cooperation in what is pious and good – all such bounties follow laws; and people do well by abiding by the laws to enjoy the blessings. When the verse says, "Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change what is in their own souls," (13:11) there is something to be done by humans for God to bring about the change they desire. Holding very tightly to the above verse is vital, as it does away with much of our blundering and confusion. We need to fully understand the relationship between the two sides in the verse. If you say that God has granted health, wealth, and cooperation to a people, we must understand that all that has come about since the people concerned had acquired the attitudes, concepts, values, and convictions that merit God's endowing them with what He endows. And, in the same way, when God afflicts a people with poverty, disease, hatred and the like, it is not without their having had the attitudes, concepts, values, and convictions that match the afflictions that have hit them. In other locations of the Qur'an, we may have one aspect only, as in "Say: 'O Allah! Lord of Power and Rule, You give power to whom You please, and strip off power from whom You please: You endue with honor whom You please, and You bring low whom You please: in Your Hands is all good. Verily, over all things You have power." (3:26) Let us not imagine that God gives status, wealth, and fertility haphazardly. Whenever we read the above verse, for instance, let us simultaneously remember, "But Allah did not wrong them: nay, they wronged their own souls." (16:33) And so on. When we read that God brought together the Prophet's companions' hearts in love, let us understand that they realized the qualities that deserved that bounty. It may be useful to admit that the effort that humans put in is so tiny in comparison with the bounty that God endows them with; and that is as it should be, for we know how immense God's bounty is. But notwithstanding the modesty of people's effort, it must be done before the sometimes astonishing result is granted. See for instance the creation of an infant – how marvelous it is! And how humble a human's part is in comparison with the result! But that small part that is a human's should be done before the infant is conceived, which does not prevent the Qur'an from marveling at the splendor of God's creation. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 75 185 2010-10-15T21:09:22Z Admin 1 Created page with 'After the publication of my first book, The Way of Adam's son (in the mid-1960s), I was urged to write a sequel to it. That first book was brought out in a kind of hurry, as I fe...' wikitext text/x-wiki After the publication of my first book, The Way of Adam's son (in the mid-1960s), I was urged to write a sequel to it. That first book was brought out in a kind of hurry, as I felt at the time that something had to be said, before the uproar around me would submerge any sober talking. When, in 1990 I was invited to lecture in Sharjah, my host, Muhammad Salem al-Qasimee reminded me that my first book was, in my own words, just for proclamation; therefore, I was morally bound to bring out something, "for persuasion this time." Several others kept exhorting, but I somehow kept procrastinating. And then, when my sister Laila succeeded at last in having me visit them in Canada in 1995, and after a visit to the United States, she put in front of me a sheaf of papers and said, "It is time you started." When I held the pen early next morning I felt I had the same feeling as I had at writing my first book, that a human's problem was in doing mischief, in not having learned the lesson of Adam's son. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 98 208 2010-10-15T21:43:11Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Arnold Toynbee, at the end of his Study of History, took up the question of whether a civilization could challenge demise. He only hoped that the Christian Civilization could do,...' wikitext text/x-wiki Arnold Toynbee, at the end of his Study of History, took up the question of whether a civilization could challenge demise. He only hoped that the Christian Civilization could do, although he did not seem optimistic enough. Toynbee did excellent work by taking up Ibn Khaldoun's cycle of the lifespan of a state, and developed it to be a cycle of the lifespan of civilizations. One thing that Toynbee did not notice was the cycle of prophethood. It is a cycle that does not confine itself to any particular nation or race or civilization. It is something like 'the cycle of man's effort,' from a verse in the Qur'an, "O you man! Verily you are ever toiling on toward your Lord – painfully toiling – but you shall meet Him." (84:6). It was a process that started from the day the Lord said, "I will create a vicegerent on earth;" (2:30); and it ends in a human's realizing God's foreshadowing, in the same verse "I know what you do not know." (2:30) This process or cycle of 'human effort' started with Adam (and his two sons were given prominence in the Qur'an), and on to Noah, Abraham, and so on until Muhammad. It was a new way of a human's endeavors; and in the last link of man's efforts, the prophets' message, a human was commanded to look at history, to discover its laws; for, as the Qur'an warns the human being, if he/she fails to understand, then history has its way of forcing humankind to listen. There will be a time, and I can see it in the near future, when people will come under the guidance given by the prophets; and those who try to discourage others from the way of God will be effectively stopped; men will come to accept equality with other men, with no attempt to rise above other men, and without the folly of trying to eliminate compulsion through compulsion. But not yet. Especially in the Muslim world people cannot up till now consider an alternative to compulsion. Indeed, if Muslims wish to see their bodies relieved of the consequences of compulsion, then they need to dismiss it from their hearts. It is a disease in the heart that, as long as it survives there, will not allow good sense to take its place. And when you are really healed of the disease, you will not make exception for yourself. It begins when the Muslim looks into his own heart and tries to free it from the wish to force others. Does this go against the grain? So many Muslims who have influence inspire in the hearts of their followers that the more spite and ill-will they have, the better Muslims they are. But this is not what Abraham taught; he prayed to God that his heart be free from impurity. How far from this purity of heart we are when we look with derision at the practice of Bilal and his comrades, taking them to be defeated inside when they accepted to be tormented without taking revenge. Do you see now why I say that the era of the prophets' system has not arrived yet. People cannot imagine repelling mischief but with mischief, with more severe mischief if possible. Do we think of a way of giving each other a peaceful life instead of hurting each other? That is what the Qur'an teaches us, "Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel Evil with what is better: then will he between whom and you was hatred, becomes as it were your friend and intimate." (41:34). Do we really think of the way of turning somebody's hostility into love? I suspect that many still regard this as a kind of madness, and that shows you how long a way we shall have to walk. Many still consider compulsion as the good sense. And yet, good sense comes without compulsion. But let us return to Jonah's people. They are the people who, as the Qur'an recounts, learned the lesson at the right time, and so averted punishment. They are one reason for my optimism; for my insistence that God's light will spread and then dominate. It is not just belief in the unseen but rather belief in something that begins to happen before our eyes. History is my witness; even though many ignore it. One starting point is to realize that somebody's disbelief is not a cause for eliminating him. Nor should we imagine that the Qur'an calls for this. It is confusion like this that led us to wage the two Gulf Wars; for in the eyes of each party, the others were disbelievers. But, at the same time, we have a book like Muhammad Sa'eed Ramadan al-Booti's Jihad, about which I said the first time I saw it, "The world will not be the same after the publication of this book as it was before it." It is not a minor thing that a man of the caliber of al-Booti should publish a book asserting that disbelief is no cause for execution. But it does not mean that the complex problem will be solved with one book. Works like the above unearth facts that people have ignored for such a long time, and they often meet such unusual ideas with hostility and denial for some time. Well, people may receive well or dispute most vehemently, but history will go its way. Not the smallest bit is lost in history; I mean it will have its part in determining people's destiny. It must show people where they stand, and how they fare. For our part, it is our duty to learn to adapt with the minimum losses and cost. We have with us this excellent teacher which not only teaches the harmful and the profitable, but teaches the law to which they refer, the engines behind the movements of history. (the sunan in the diction of the Qur'an (as for example in 33:62.) It is left to us, in the Muslim world, to learn from Jonah's people and from history how to bring to a minimum the amount of suffering that is inflicted on us, in quality and in quantity; not to be so much disgraced, not to be the greatest losers. So let each one of us do his share in bringing this to pass. Let us not pay again and again for the same mistakes. My own ambition is to discover the main law of history. One thing appears true, that the world was not created as a one-time act, nor is it regressing and declining. This is not what the Qur'an teaches us, nor is it what observation tells us. The world has its own laws of guidance, and moves towards guidance, no matter how pessimistic we may be about it. A human can intervene and save time, and can accelerate the progress, to realize the most profitable. By adopting creative ways, a human can prove what God prophesied for him at the time of his creation. It is a gross short-sightedness to assume that what happens at the moment will go on happening as it is. Jonah's people are a proof that something can happen that did not happen before. It is our duty to learn to have the model of Jonah's people turn into a general law, not to stay as a single phenomenon. It is always a hurdle to people's advance that they take the novelty of an event as a proof that it cannot happen again. That something is not there does not mean that we do not cause it to come into being. And the world very badly needs this law. The world is stiff with pessimism; and this condition stifles the vitality of the spirit, and does away with its natural vigorousness and motivation. History has indeed saved me. I saw in it God's creation. I saw how people simply did things in the way they saw them happen; I saw all the losing deals, where time and efforts are wasted. But I also saw how history discards the erroneous ways and practices, and how the world is designed in a way to proceed to the less costly and more merciful, and to the less complicated. It is on a principle of great economy that the world is designed. And the realization of all this is not far away from us; its early harbingers are already with us. But let us hurry in stopping the bleeding, the great wastage in time, materials, and human abilities. Indeed, to the extent we are short of knowledge we are bound to waste time and energy. History, for long ages, used to proceed spontaneously and slowly. But of late, humans began to open their eyes and see that they can steer things and save time. So when we now speak of truth having the upper hand, we are referring to this awakening to the possibility of following the easier and less complicated methods. So let us not be among those who deny God's signs. But if we insist on our ways, on not seeking a more fruitful and creative method, history just does not care, for it is we who have to pay the price. See what distinguished Jonah's people from the others; what merited that penalty should be lifted. So do not doubt that men's effort have effect. God chose not to have all men be well-guided and pious. He chose to have them bear the responsibility, to determine their own destiny. It is a trust a human has to bear. He/she has been given the opportunity to distinguish himself from the rest of creation. And that happens when a human adopts the way of good sense, not compulsion; no faith can enter a heart through compulsion, as the Qur'an says, "'Will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe?" (10:99) Does all this suffice? Is history our reference, for repetitious and monotonous ways, and for creative and new ways? Does the reader distinguish the two readings of the Qur'an? What a human has been enabled to do is not little, "And He has subjected to you, as from Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth." (45:13) But man often underrates himself/herself, and does not take count of the trust put in his/her hands. He/she is required to develop the world, with that ability of distinguishing the profitable and the harmful. So will a human remember this and not regress to a more primitive state? What the angels objected to is still true of humankind; at the time of creating man, the angels objected to God, "Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?" (2:30). Humans still shed blood and wreak havoc on the earth. They still drive other men from their home (45 million emigrants in the world, according to the latest statistics.) Of course there are all these acts of destruction and mischief, but we must deal with the ideas behind them. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 90 200 2010-10-15T21:35:35Z Admin 1 Created page with 'So you see I do not crave, as most Muslims do, to see a change in governments. Nor does it thrill me to see a change there, unless it is the end result of changes in our mindset....' wikitext text/x-wiki So you see I do not crave, as most Muslims do, to see a change in governments. Nor does it thrill me to see a change there, unless it is the end result of changes in our mindset. I see things in the light of the verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion; Truth stands out clear from error." (2:256) It is through persuasion that a government must change and not through violence and compulsion. I am not aware of anyone having viewed things from this vantage-point. But can it become a common approach? Will a group declare that it will not attempt to cause change to happen without any resort to violence? Do some study history and learn from its lessons? Is it not enough that we have tried and tried for fourteen centuries, and have always failed to change things to the better through resorting to violent means? Are we not primed yet for a more mature way? Why have others succeeded in having sense while we have not? It is charming, however, to realize that God's laws have no favorites, and no nation is exempt from the law of God. All human beings must answer to the verse, "You are but men." (5:18) But those who rise above others would not have the laws that apply to others apply to them. About such people the Lord says, as we see in the Qur'an, "Those who behave arrogantly on the earth in defiance of right – I will turn away from My Signs; Even if they see all the Signs." (7:146) Have I at least got the message over, at least to some individuals? To win over only some would raise my morale. The problem with people is that they find the other barbaric to commit violence, an unacceptable crime; but their own violence seems justified. Do not do it, man! Do not place yourself as above God's laws! Nor try to deny how your passions and desires control you. Remember how prone you are to sin or stumble or err! Neither I nor you are immune to trespassing. We need to learn from the physician who deals with his patient as in need of help, not in need of elimination. This is something we need to apply to human failings, without contempt, without slandering or backbiting. With the required knowledge at your disposal you do not need to compel the other or to force his hand. You can give him content, and make him feel you have mercy for him, tolerance and equanimity. People are not opposed to knowledge; it is only the style that alienates them. I do realize that I have more words of complaint than words of solution. I know that I am not equipped to provide convincing examples. And there are enough examples in life. It is only my ignorance that I can plead as the cause of my wordiness and thin writing. I can only turn to the good reader to bear with me, and look through all this, in case he can find some insights here and there. I sometimes read that physicists enter the electrons into accelerators that help them study certain facts about the atom. That is fascinating. But it is painful that people do not study the method of prophets which helps in accelerating human progress and in getting over human problems. It seems that believers feel abashed, and hold back whatever occurs to them about the way of prophets. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 80 190 2010-10-15T21:15:23Z Admin 1 Created page with ' Michele Foucault asserted in The System of Discourse that the modern human still dreads knowledge, that he/she has "a very deep scare of the 'logos'" in his words. This fear of ...' wikitext text/x-wiki Michele Foucault asserted in The System of Discourse that the modern human still dreads knowledge, that he/she has "a very deep scare of the 'logos'" in his words. This fear of knowledge will not go away as long as we are engaged in this game of the master and the slave; we are very deeply wary of accepting the equality of men. Accepting dealing on a footing of equality will do away with the oppressor, and it will also do away with the oppressed, but we are still trapped in this vicious circle. But can we just decide to walk out of the circle? There was a time in our history when we stopped this game of the oppressor and the oppressed, but alas not for long! But can we now achieve this breaking of the sinister link? It is both an easy step and a most arduous one. We may understand history as an overarching power that would not give us respite. But the change is really within reach, for God did not create a human to be another passive creation. If a human fails to learn from the toll already paid, then he/she will have to learn from more, and perhaps much higher, toll. The problem is that so far one does not give up being oppressed but to be an oppressor. Men fail to perceive a third alternative: men as equals. It is something like magic that blinds men's eyes to the facts, and I do realize that the prophets had to pay so dearly for attempting to lift the scales from men's eyes, and they were charged with being mad. So anyone of us who tries now to undo the magic can be easily charged with madness. But the attempt is worth the risk. Is not pulling humankind out of their quagmire of idolatry worth much? Indeed, at this time humankind is just pushed towards this new era of liberation. And yet it is no easy feat to make men see possible what they see as impossible! The thing that Adam's son achieved is remarkable. He succeeded in getting out of the game of the oppressor and the oppressed, the killer and the killed, the dominant and the dominated. It is as you see the same game, whether one is the first party or the second party. Whether one manages to be the first party or succumbs to be the second, he is perpetuating the situation, and giving it legitimacy. And he is doing it even when he climbs to be the higher party, or falls to be the lower one. And there will be no democracy finding its way to a land where this game of the dominant and dominated does not come to an end. Have I delivered my message to even a handful of persons? Or do they still take me to be crazy? Honestly I do not see that the message has really settled in the minds of even a handful of persons. But I do not lose hope. For even stones will be affected by the drops of water. The Qur'an tells us about that, "For among rocks there are some from which rivers gush forth; others there are which when split asunder send forth water." (2:74). Nor is this situation too far off. I do remember when I wrote my first book, The Way of Adam's son, (in the mid-sixties of last century) some of my best friends took me to task for it. "You discourage the dedicated Muslims from offering what they can," they said (meaning that without tyrants' fear of some violence, they will not correct their ways.) But I remember how, twenty years after that, one of those critics came to say, "You know, I did speak against that book, but now I see that it is the only way!" We need to have faith, faith enough to carry us through this long process of transferring people from misguidance to guidance; we need, too, to express things clearly enough, as the Qur'an says, "Truth stands out clear from error." (2:256) I do realize how challenging this quest is: this verse, which Muslims take the first part of, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" to be abrogated, I undertake the task of making it abrogating not abrogated. What really this endeavor implies is a new perspective on faith: that to be a real believer, you must accept to stand on equal footing with the other. Let what you believe in and what the other believes in be measured by the same test, the test of the benefits and the harm of convictions, as the Qur'an says, "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of humankind remains on earth," (13:17) and "Not your desires, nor those of the People of the Book can prevail: whoever works evil, will be requited accordingly." (4:123) It is history that is to give the verdict on our acts. The truth of our verbally declaring, 'There is no god but God' will be seen in our own life. It will help us that the belief in one God is something inborn in humans. It is one aspect of belief in the one God that He is the One Creator. This aspect seems now to be unanimously agreed upon: no one would now claim that he has a hand in the act of creation. Idolatry in this connection is seen when some people claim that they are the intercessors between men and God; and when some people find some good dead men to be their intercessors with God. There is another aspect of the Oneness of God about which people often err: that the final word belongs to God and to no one else. Pharaoh would not let people choose for themselves – they were forced to take him as the one who must be obeyed. This type of idolatry survives. I say this to draw the reader's attention to the connection between two verses of the Qur'an: the Qur'an's greatest verse, as is generally acknowledged, is verse 2:255 "Allah! There is no god but He – the Living, …" and the verse immediately next to it, "Let there be no compulsion in religion; Truth stands out clear from error," for faith in the One God, with the submission to the One God, is not accepted unless one accepts it with conviction. One will not have embraced religion without doing it whole-heartedly. Another thing is that one may have faith, but faith in a wrong belief. It seems that most people are not aware of this fact, that those who believe can be believers in something right or wrong. Nor is the readiness to sacrifice life or wealth a proof of the rightness of one's faith! Therefore we say that the only criterion of the rightness of what one believes is experience and history, the law of "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of humankind remains on earth." (13:17) Add to this that what is right and good at one time does not have to be right and good at another time. Hence, time becomes a factor in deeming something to be right or wrong, beneficial or harmful, good or bad. Now we can better appreciate that God's signs come in the form of verses of His scriptures, and come in the form of the facts of history and the signs of the universe around us. And the Qur'an accepts the signs of the world, the visible signs, to be the witness that it is the true book. Despite this fact, Muslims have not given history its real value. They will not look with any seriousness at the facts of the Soviet Union, or the European Union – as if things do not happen in accordance with laws, and as if the laws that apply to others have nothing to do with us. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 64 173 2010-10-15T20:54:20Z Admin 1 Created page with ' Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this plan...' wikitext text/x-wiki Praise be to God; may peace be upon His chosen prophets, and upon those who call to justice and mercy. I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. I may mention here that it is fortunate that I propound my idea at this juncture in time, when mankind happens to be primed for comprehending the method of Adam's son. Humankind has almost understood, through lots and lots of suicidal trials, that violence is just not the way. For my part, I have devoted all my humble effort to bringing this fact to the notice of humankind. I have no doubt that later studies will greatly overshadow my effort. My only accomplishment would be then that I have shaken the sleepers to open their eyes and see things from a vantage point that they had never suspected to exist. So let us start with this point. One big hurdle that prevents Arabs and Muslims from probing their dilemmas is Israel. But they seem to forget in this respect that our real problem is not Israel, nor the imperial powers. A more basic problem that lurks behind our tragic conditions is that we suffer from certain mental drawbacks for which neither Israel, nor any imperial power, are responsible. Long ago the Qur'an warned us to look for our troubles in the right place: " Say: 'It is from yourselves.'" (3:165) If any still have doubts that our basic ills lie within our souls, let them remember the Second Gulf War, when we forgot about Israel, and were sure that more important than Israel were the disputes among us – we even summoned those same imperial powers to help us defeat our domestic 'enemy.' Just make peace among yourselves, with each other, and you will see, Arabs and Muslims, how the world will respect you, will try to win your favor; and you will see how America will turn its back on Israel; because America has always changed sides when it proved more profitable to do so. The point here is that no one can subjugate us unless we agree to be subjugated. But if we still refuse to learn, then more catastrophes and more scourge will force us one day to learn, though after we have paid for our failure to open our ears and eyes earlier. We shall have to learn, if not through learning from history, then from more pain and catastrophes. The Qur'an is replete with exhortation to look and listen and think, as in this verse, "And how many signs in the heavens and earth do they pass by? Yet they turn their faces away from them." (12:105) Can we for instance envision a future situation in which we have really established peace among ourselves, peace whereby no one will have to jeopardize anything, neither territory, nor position? Can our intellectuals perceive that? It will be clear then that what we need is not the great hero that comes forth and forces us by might into a unified body. For as long as we keep waiting for the one man to come and draw us out of the abyss we shall never find our way. But I am sure that the light of day is coming, because of what God has promised, "Their intention is to extinguish Allah's Light by blowing with their mouths; but Allah will complete the revelation of His Light," (61:8) and on the basis of what I have seen and heard in this world. Beer Ajam (a village southwest of Syria), 6/11/1996 [[Category:Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 91 201 2010-10-15T21:36:58Z Admin 1 Created page with 'We said something above about Foucault. He concluded that although psychoanalysts have succeeded in unraveling some types of madness, they have not got to the extreme madness, a ...' wikitext text/x-wiki We said something above about Foucault. He concluded that although psychoanalysts have succeeded in unraveling some types of madness, they have not got to the extreme madness, a form of seeking others' good that falls outside the domain of rationality or science, in Foucault's system. This form of altruism is in direct clash with Western culture; and, as those who know Foucault well declare, he himself has opted to affiliate with the small group who uphold altruism. Nietzsche had announced the death of God, and Foucault announced a few decades later the death of man. Of course, what the former is asserting is that the traditional reference of knowledge had died, and so the latter is announcing that not only the conventional reference of knowledge has died, but even a human as the reference has. But neither Nietzsche nor Foucault has indicated the great authority embodied in history, a reference that a human can always review and draw on. It is the dialectic that relates man to culture. It is the place where man can ascertain how culture used to develop spontaneously, and then it was a human's responsibility to intervene and direct culture's development. And it was through his earthly means that man was granted this ability. It is such a striking discovery, this chance for a human to play a major part in shaping his own character, by having control over the contents of his mind. A human being is no longer a simple creature, since God Himself is awaiting his/her doing his/her part, before God does His part! "Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change what is in their souls." (13:11) The point here is that culture itself is a product of the human being, but it also shapes the human mind. You see how a human can be above anything in this creation, but can also lower than many animals. The novel thing here is that a few individuals here and there have awakened to the importance of a human's ability to find his/her way and forge ahead. Some believers and some non-believers realize that now, although their number is quite insufficient. When one's eyes are opened to the potentials of knowledge, he will no longer feel any hostility, none to any individual or conviction. And when an individual gets to that height, he may feel diffident, since he may be ostracized by society, and this is what makes Foucault hesitate and hold back. He would use words like 'pragmatic' 'altruism' or 'ontology' to describe such conditions, but is diffident when he does so; he thinks that those conditions are beyond the reach of knowledge or science, that the persons characterized with this are kind of mad. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 81 191 2010-10-15T21:16:13Z Admin 1 Created page with ' Can we really find in history an inspiration about guidance and misguidance? Guidance is a synonym of 'no compulsion in religion and opinions', and misguidance is a synonym of ...' wikitext text/x-wiki Can we really find in history an inspiration about guidance and misguidance? Guidance is a synonym of 'no compulsion in religion and opinions', and misguidance is a synonym of 'compulsion in religion and opinions.' And compulsion is not confined to any particular religion; it has rather to do with a human himself/herself: it is a human who does the compulsion, and it is a human who can be prey to compulsion. We need to explore history to ascertain the first seed of compulsion, who imposed it, and who was the victim? And what happens to the characters of both? Is this not a beautiful topic to work on? What I am doing here is not a study, but some leads to whet the appetite of young men and young women to study. For the problems of Muslims are so numerous that the more layers you remove, you find more layers. Let us for instance reflect if guidance (as in the verse "Truth 'or guidance' stands out clear from evil 'or misguidance'" 2:256) has really been distinguished from misguidance. I say it has. And it is those who know the history of a human and his/her nature, who study the progress of history – it is these who can discriminate guidance from misguidance. Muslims will come to see that a no-compulsion policy is right-guided policy, and that compulsion is misguidance. The elimination of compulsion in faith and opinion will mark major development in the history of humankind. Only history can teach us these facts. How sublime this task of protecting man's free choice of his faith is: it is continuing the prophets' work. We should see this in the Qur'an, too. The Qur'an teaches Muslims this policy, "Allah does not forbid you, with regard to those who do not fight you for your faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loves those who are just. Allah only forbids you, with regard to those who fight you for your faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support others in driving you out, from turning to them for friendship and protection. It is such as turn to them, in these circumstances, that do wrong." (60:8-9) Seeing things in this light will make us realize that a well-guided society is one where all the various opinions and faiths are upheld freely, openly and not clandestinely; except for those who intimidate others or force them out of their homes or convictions. When we understand this, and refer to the above-quoted verses (60:8-9), we can see that harassing people here to abandon their religion is not just about other religions, but about any religion, including harassing people to convert to Islam. And this means we must announce distancing ourselves from any person who uses violence in proselytizing people, even if it is to Islam. From this it must be clear that the party of the prophets' followers are worshippers of God; and the idolaters are those who serve any associate beside God; the first party use no compulsion, and the latter party resort to compulsion. Any one who resorts to compulsion is acting in contradiction with the belief in the one God. Have I expatiated long on the topic of right guidance and misguidance? If I have overdone it, it is because we often practice misguidance when we pride ourselves on being well-guided. And we may sacrifice even our life and wealth for the sake of a misguided or deluded endeavor which we take to be righteous. It is easy to see how much was sacrificed for false causes. It is so strange that people do not even wish to stop and reconsider the practices followed by other people, even those who are counted the brightest and most enlightened. Paradoxically, however, despite all the darkness, there remained traces of coherence in the minds of the simple Muslim. One sign of this coherence is naming the four Caliphs after the Prophet 'the Upright Caliphs 'al-Rashidoon in Arabic': They are the caliphs who rose to the position without compulsion. That in contrast with all the later rulers, who acceded to their position by force. It is to be noted that Muslims never called a ruler who attained his place through compulsion 'an upright ruler'. It is a very good, and intuitive, insight. But we need to follow guidance and misguidance through their manifestations in history. We need to look well to perceive how guidance does go ahead and gains ground, goes slow but sure; and how history is advancing towards good guidance, though very slowly. We have not reached the day when the angels' prediction that a human will do mischief and spill blood (as in 2:30) is falsified by humankind's conduct. And when we are not allowed to practice compulsion in the most sacred thing, religion, then we are not allowed to practice it in lesser things, as in the case of politics, doctrines, and persuasions. As people believe or disbelieve inside their minds, and as we have no access to that, then if you compel someone to agree with you, you are inducing him/her to be a hypocrite. We have also to repeat that what is right now is not necessarily so for ever; the process of renewal of creation does not stop, and so something more upright comes up and abrogates what used to be the best but is no longer the best. What used to be good stuff will be froth at a later stage, and it will be pushed aside and replaced. The general progress of history is going towards what is better and meritorious. When hardworking scholars rise to explore history and examine the causes of progress and regression, and when a lot of good studies are made available to people, this will accelerate the advance of history. No despair will settle in as long as the light of the future is brought to the notice of the best minds. In the case of the Muslim world, we did enjoy a spate of good guidance, at the time of the Upright Caliphs, but then all the chaos and scramble for power took sway, and submerged any sense of a more sober life. Is it not deplorable that the bright minds did not even feel the need to explore this unfortunate decline? [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 101 211 2010-10-15T21:46:01Z Admin 1 Created page with 'To know right from wrong, the Qur'an directs us to refer to history. It is there that we review the continual conflict between the arrogant and the callers to justice and mercy. ...' wikitext text/x-wiki To know right from wrong, the Qur'an directs us to refer to history. It is there that we review the continual conflict between the arrogant and the callers to justice and mercy. Think this over time and time again; for by laying it nearest your heart you give stability and steadiness to your heart; without history, we are unlikely to adhere to our constructive work. If we fail to learn from past events, then God will never despair, and He ordained that history will not despair. History is there to penalize people until they have sense. Do you envision the enormity of the trust left in a human's hands? Do not listen to those who insist on nihilism, for this principle makes any activity vain and pointless. Do not think that man's intellect is the reference, for it can stumble at every step – it is history rather which can be trusted, for it does not act in compliance with men's whims and caprices. Men have the option to refer to the recorded history, for if they fail to do so, history will make of them an example of what it costs to ignore it. This latter option is always mentioned in the Qur'an, as in the verse, "And you shall certainly know the truth of it after a while." (38:88) [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 65 174 2010-10-15T20:56:18Z Admin 1 Created page with ' Let us start our discussion with the following short tradition of the Prophet's (peace be upon him): "Follow the example of Adam's son" (an authentic tradition, reported by al-T...' wikitext text/x-wiki Let us start our discussion with the following short tradition of the Prophet's (peace be upon him): "Follow the example of Adam's son" (an authentic tradition, reported by al-Tirmidhi, and also, in slightly different wording, by Abu Dawood.) Is not this a tradition of the Prophet's? If so, why have Muslims generally not cared for it? Or even flouted and derided the concept in it? I still remember when, as I was once elaborating on this, one among the audience said: "Nay! I will never buy this! If I am to enter Paradise, I want to enter it with my sword brandished high in my hands; never with my head bent down with submission and surrender." Often have we seen a Muslim scholar devote a whole book to the explication of one tradition of the Prophet's (peace be upon him), so why have all the scholars totally ignored the above tradition? To go one further step; let us inquire what renders a certain text idle and inoperative? It is worth our while to inquire how the Qur'an and the sunnah (the Prophet's traditions) have fared across the ages, how certain portions are ignored and others attended to. A whole science should be dedicated to the study of the processes through which texts come to be brought into life or thrown into oblivion. I know some light has been thrown on this, but it is not yet developed into a science, which we do need. We do notice how humans' minds go through changes, as a result of which they are most inattentive to things that used to be of primary importance; and how often this happens to us, and in connection with our most precious texts! That is why I yearn to see people investigate why for instance we ignore certain parts of the Qur'an and the Prophet's traditions. (I did raise such inquiry in my Foreword to the book No, Jury, God Before King!) The Messenger was once mentioning a certain future event, when he commented: "This will take place when men have deserted knowledge." One companion, Ziad bin Labid, objected: "How can this be, Messenger of Allah, when we learn the Qur'an and will have our children recite it, and they will have their children recite it, and so on until the Day of Judgment?" "Oh, Ziad! I used to take you to think better than most in Medina! Do you not see how the Jews and the Christians still hold the Bible, yet it does them no good at all?" (A fairly authentic tradition, reported by al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah.) We may say in light of the above tradition that we have the language of letters and words, and the language of concepts and ideas. In the above parable of Adam's two sons, the aggressor could not grasp certain notions – his concepts were not mature enough to handle the situation as a human being should do. And when the Prophet spoke to the Quraish tribe in Makkah (Mecca) they failed to comprehend, though he used the same medium they used – they all shared the same Arabic language; but the dispute was over a certain rigid worldview of theirs which they refused to reconsider. I do realize that the modern age is beginning to see more into such matters. The problems connected with this have been with humankind since humans walked on this planet, but analyzing them is quite recent. The average Muslim is happy that he/she was born in a certain culture, for he/she says: "Thank God I was born in a Muslim culture; for if I were born elsewhere, I would be a follower of a different religion." He is virtually saying here: "If I had been born in a different part of the world, I would have followed that culture's religion, would have taken over their worldview, their ideas about salvation, about sacred texts, and about whence we came and where we go. I would have taken other men for models of perfection, and as my reference for right conduct." How hard it is to make a fresh start and to change direction can be ascertained from exploring precedents in history. But we may begin to open our eyes by reflecting on how the Muslim has come to a state when many texts, those of the Qur'an and sunnah (the Prophet's traditions), fall on deaf ears. Muslims are especially wary of social sciences – they are worried that such sciences would unearth facts about humankind which contravene the Qur'an or the sunnah, for Muslims would not say then that what proved to be false was their own comprehension of the Qur'an and sunnah, but the Qur'an and sunnah themselves. It is hard for them to admit that their minds can have borne illusions that blur comprehension. The cocoon in which they hide all that they take to be sacred is believed to be inherent in texts; and that is why men have often preferred to die in defense of concepts which they sanctify, for they take them to come from God. If the Prophet's companion failed in the above tradition to comprehend how knowledge may deplete, then how can we be sure that we have not fallen into the same pit in which the Jews and Christians fell? And by the way we are again wrong when we do not delve into the Bible and see in it the light that the Qur'an has asserted it has: " It was We Who revealed the Law to Moses: therein was guidance and light. … therefore fear not men, but fear Me, and do not sell My Signs for a miserable price." (5:44) Instead, we quite simply say: "They have gone astray because their Scriptures have been distorted while we will never go astray as our Scripture will never be distorted, for it has been preserved by God Himself." One thing one may conclude is that texts may often not help in leading people out of their dilemmas; we may be in need of another paradigm that helps us benefit from the light of the Qur'an; we really need to reflect on that which the Messenger was concerned about, and foresaw that the Muslims would encounter in the same way as other nations had encountered. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 92 202 2010-10-15T21:37:52Z Admin 1 Created page with 'It is in a very real sense a problem of language. It is also in a very real sense a problem of seeing, hearing and intellect. When the Qur'an says to the Prophet, "Allah can make...' wikitext text/x-wiki It is in a very real sense a problem of language. It is also in a very real sense a problem of seeing, hearing and intellect. When the Qur'an says to the Prophet, "Allah can make any that He wills to hear; but you cannot make those to hear who are buried in graves;" (35:22) do we recall the two readings of the Qur'an? God's bounty has endowed a human with hearing, but how he/she hears and how he/she listens is their responsibility. If men go very far in never heeding, they will not have the last word there – there are the lashes of history, which will at some stage bring them back to their senses. Language comes first here. You tell someone not to touch something, as it will burn his hand; not to take drugs, as they will have grave consequences for him and his family; not to break a pledge, even if he thinks his treachery will be of advantage in the short run. When you tell people all this, when you tell them that justice will do them much good, but they refuse to heed, then God's law says: "Well, then, receive such torture as those before you suffered!" Language should be good enough for thinking people, but if they fail to learn and if that does not make them see and hear, then, as the Qur'an says, "no change will you find in Allah's way of dealing; no turning off will you find in Allah's way of dealing." (35:43) Nothing has sense before we look at its consequences, for a human can ascribe whatever meaning to anything; even words like Allah, the Messenger, the Scripture, the Last Day, the disbeliever – they are words, and it is up to us to provide them with what we imagine is right, or claim is right. The evidence for any sense that people claim is the consequences of their claim; consequences have no favorites. We are given the option to learn the consequences without paying dearly for our blindness. But, sooner or later, we shall have to succumb to consequences as the real criterion. Let us again remember the verse, "thus Allah by parables shows forth Truth and Vanity. For the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of humankind remains on earth." (13:17). If you learn from the past, you are in your right sense; if you fail to learn from the past, then the future will make of you a lesson for others, as you suffer the consequences of your heedlessness. So when some philosophers speak of the death of God, or the death of man, it is the contents of their minds about God or about a human that have died. They had attributed to those concepts a certain sanctity, but then discovered that what was in their minds was not sacred, nor absolute; it is the sense in their minds that is bound to die. But the consequences do not belong to a human, nor do they just fail to happen if a human thinks they will not happen. A human often has a most deluded idea about God, as the Qur'an reminds us, "But this thought of yours which you entertained concerning your Lord, has brought you to destruction, and now you have become of those utterly lost!" (41:23), and "another band … moved by wrong suspicions of Allah – suspicions due to Ignorance." (3:154) A human is a historical being; that is, he/she keeps changing as time passes; he/she acquires more knowledge, and he/she comes to divine the laws that control his/her dealings with the cosmos around him. Whatever a human learns and wants to transmit to others, he/she will have to use language as the medium. But language is not the facts – only symbols that stand for the facts. The real sense lies in the good consequences and the bad consequences; and as long as those consequences are not clear to men's minds, they keep disputing and wrangling. Now we see that in a very real sense language is not the real problem; and even the historical events have sense to the extent that we understand the consequences of behaviors. If we do, we cease to scream or be aggressive: We would say: "You just show me a solution with a better outcome and I follow you." That is why the Qur'an asserts that once the right thing is there, the false thing will just vanish, "And say: 'Truth has now arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is by its nature bound to perish.'" (17:81). And if the world believes, from the tiniest of villages, to the halls of the UN, that falsehood will sway and dominate for long, then they will be disproved; not because I say it, but because the consequences of their ways will show that. So it turns out that we still live in darkness, that there is so much to discover. I just have a glimpse of a solution for the problem of humankind, something like the discovery that the earth is round. Was that not so hard to accept, and now is admitted by everybody. The same will happen when people understand the problem of humankind. The problem now is that each society believes itself to be the center of things, that its race is the purest and highest. My proof for that is the Veto Right, a most flagrant example of arrogance and self-centeredness. It is like a very loud cry, "Me the mightiest; me the final truth; if you deny it, remember what happened to Galileo, when he denied that the earth was the center of the universe!" Of course there were tyrants in history who claimed to have unlimited power. The Qur'an tells us about the arrogant kind who bragged, "I give life and death." (2:258). The real problem in such cases is not in the despot, but in that the others around him envy him; they do not really wish to see his example disappear, but wish they were in his place. We can now see how really little that king was, and even how little Pharaoh was. There is a huge difference between endeavoring to see privileges withdrawn from a particular person or group, and endeavoring to see that privileges are eliminated altogether. This last is the target that we must act to see realized. The prophets came to rid both the arrogant of his arrogance and the oppressed of his oppression. But that target seems to be a far cry to us. We do not even feel that the downtrodden is laboring under fetters; it is farther from our consciousness to perceive that the tyrant labors under fetters. It is the same game that both parties share, the game of the oppressor and the oppressed. It is a way of life; the alternative being a society of equality and justice. Maybe one short rule stated by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, can help one go one step out of the game of the arrogant and the submissive, his saying, "No obedience is due in contradiction with God's commands." [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 93 203 2010-10-15T21:38:27Z Admin 1 Created page with 'It is evident that in the present trends of the Muslim world it is quite loathsome that one talks of being the first to offer peace. This is extreme madness for them. Can we deci...' wikitext text/x-wiki It is evident that in the present trends of the Muslim world it is quite loathsome that one talks of being the first to offer peace. This is extreme madness for them. Can we decide to make peace with other Muslims; to do that we must realize that the making of peace is to be done on earth, and not in heaven; God will not make peace until we have adopted the concepts of peace. We cannot repeat that too often. We need to remember in order to understand how it happens that we are more wary of each other than of our bitterest enemies. And we have shown that we can appeal to our enemies to save us from our brethren. If the two World Wars were examples of wars among the arrogant and haughty, the two Gulf wars were examples of Muslim-Muslim and Arab-Arab wars. That germ is a greater source of risk than America, and than Israel. It is a germ that can distract us, and divert us from our real enemies, exactly as the matador can wave the red cloth to divert the bull from its real enemy. And, as extreme ignorance reigns, Muslims often do not distinguish between a war (like Badr, Uhud, or Hunain) that is yes violent, but is not unlike the surgeon's effort when he operates and cuts off the infected appendix or any such operation, and the stupid wars that often rage in the modern world, like the Gulf wars. What I am trying to unearth are certain historical laws that we keep stored away under lock and key; to reveal how we have concepts of the world, created by our imagination, but we view them as the perfect revelations of God and His Prophet. It is up to us to make a mature approach to things; it is our responsibility to make it detestable to follow the way of misguidance. But for that to happen we need a lot of guides who are able to show the way; we need some young men and young women who will dedicate themselves to revealing this, who will cure the hearts of other Muslims. But where does one find this science? How does one point out the way? We need both to find the way, and to master the language that will appeal to most people. The talented artist counts a lot in that respect. For it happens that the thinker is not always the poet, and the poet is not always the thinker. One of the first tasks would be to determine at what time Muslims started to follow the way of maturity and good guidance, and at what time they started to lose that. Let us first remember the soul of a human, how a human was endowed with the ability to follow either the way of virtue or vice. The Qur'an says about that, "By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it, and its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right – truly he succeeds that purifies it, and he fails that corrupts it." (91:7-10). We may not assert the existence of the drive to virtue and good guidance alone in the human spirit; nor the drive towards vice and misguidance. To admit one side and deny the other would be a heresy about God, and would blur the distinction between belief and disbelief, virtue and vice, Pharaoh and Moses, good deeds and bad deeds. That both sides are there within the human character is the creation of God; but to choose either way is the responsibility of a human; it is also the responsibility of the society where the individual is raised. Do you see how often we need to cite the two readings of the Qur'an, and how we seem to come across them at every turn? We need it here when both laymen and scholars inquire: "Is guidance to the right way granted by God, or is it the doing of a human being?" Let us remember what we have just quoted: "By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it, and its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right – truly he succeeds that purifies it, and he fails that corrupts it." (91:7-10) As you see, the first two verses here refer to the act of God, and the last two to a human's. Let these verses be so commonly used that their sense sinks deep into the hearts of everybody. Let it be as clear as possible that it is we that, consciously or unconsciously, do the purifying or corruption of the spirit. It is not just a single act in our experience, like the foolhardy adventure of the Gulf wars; nor is it a single act that distinguishes a sane life from a life ruled by the jungle law. But God will never give up; His law is there, for all those who can see, and it is there to punish those who fail to see. And I feel it incumbent on me to keep drawing attention to all the relevant facts, feeling sure that guidance will be distinguished from misguidance. You may test where Muslims stand by asking any random Muslim who among fighters is performing jihad, and who fights in the way the khawarij fought; whose fighting is legal, and whose is not; and what the conditions of warranted fighting are. Do Muslims recall the Prophet's, peace be upon him, saying: "Whoever fights under a blind banner, then he may die the same way as the pre-Islam Arabs died in their fighting." (Reported by Muslim). Is it not time we put this serious issue under investigation? Is it not time we sorted out when killing is a crime, and when the human soul is sacred, and under what conditions it would be legal to slay a human? Did not the Messenger, peace be upon him, warn us during his Farewell Pilgrimage, against reverting into disbelief by killing each other? The many layers of malice and anger against each other disable our minds from thinking with some vividness. I feel my kind of work to be like the archeologist's, since I have to remove so much earth that buries these subjects. Some take such attempts to resurrect these topics as trying the impossible, while others wait for the enlightenment to descend from beyond the clouds to save us. Both parties do not try to act on the model of the prophets. My endeavor is to see the verse, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256) work in our life; for when it does, love will take the place of ill-will and hatred. But we have gone a long time in the way of compulsion, in religion and politics, that we find it so hard to imagine an alternative to this way. It is unthinkable to the Muslim mind to respond to blind aggression but with blind aggression. Sane and mature responses seem mad, and, ironically, we imagine that we can attain a life of peace and uprightness through violent means. It is so because people take their own misguidance to be justified, while they take others' misguidance to be unjustified. That is why when the above verse says, in the next clause, "Truth stands out clear from Error" we do not find that to be true in our life, for good guidance has not come clear from misguidance. Such things we need to stop a long time and reflect on, to see where every one of us stands in connection to them. When I review the method I am advocating to some listeners, I tell them that I have a way in which we may all be winners; none will have to lose his/her position or wealth or land, and none will have to risk his/her life or any other's life; I remind them that there is no problem but may not be solved in a peaceful way. But so far I have not succeeded in getting the idea over to my audience. Is it then so hard to comprehend? Or is it that the resistance to good guidance is so deep in our consciousness? This latter seems to be the case. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 74 184 2010-10-15T21:07:48Z Admin 1 Created page with ' The prophets introduced something quite astonishing: the idea of "No obedience in defiance of God's command!" (an expression said by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as repo...' wikitext text/x-wiki The prophets introduced something quite astonishing: the idea of "No obedience in defiance of God's command!" (an expression said by Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, as reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim.) To say this is such a simple thing. I may now add that men have found it hard to accept this principle on account of its simplicity. The rule here is that there is no blind obedience; no obedience when one is commanded to act in disobedience with God's command. This applies not only to God's commands expressed in words, but to His laws as witnessed in the universe. See the statistics; see the outcome of men's conduct. See what good a certain conduct causes, and what mischief. And that is part of the prophets' followers' duty: to put men's hands on real-life situations which show the blessing of heeding God's laws. Unless we can make people see and comprehend the sense of what actually takes place, by showing them the outcome of men's deeds, they may deny what is true. It is true that the law is enacted in heaven, but it works here on earth. Who will make the common people realize that they can commune with God here on earth: for when they are helping a sick person, a hungry person, or an ignorant person, they will be in the company of God (in reference to a tradition of the Prophet's to that effect.) To see the words of God work, we need always to contemplate them with reference to real-life social situations. The world is at the disposal of humankind, and society is not excluded from that: it, too, can be at the disposal of those who care to study its laws. The meaning of this is that society can be controlled with the laws of good behavior and bad behavior; and when we direct a human, we merely tap that potential which is already in his/her nature. To develop a yearning for good guidance we need to distinguish faith from injustice, for at present they are still confused. It seems more effective to start with injustice, for once we bring it out most graphically and make it crystal clear, then faith will also be understood. We do see how, driven by faith, some people are ready to lay down their life to promote that which they believe in. But such faith can be a belief in what is injurious, and as such can be counterproductive. And that is why we had better start with the concept of injustice. Now injustice is the opposite of justice. And justice means that you are fair, that you allow the other what you allow yourself – you realize and admit that you have no right to rise above him or to allow yourself what you deny him. One can be close or far from this ideal. The subtle point here is that justice will not be realized unless we follow the example of Adam's son. A society that does not accept the principle of Adam's son is not only lacking in maturity – its faith is murky and impure; it is mixed up with injustice. Unless society adopts the principle of even-handed dealings then it will be controlled by the principle of 'might is right.' And the oppressed is implicitly told that to be right, he will have to be physically stronger than the oppressor – a most destructive principle. It is this that shows you what places the Muslim world at the rear of the world's nations. Any nation that gives privilege to the stronger party will be groping in the wilderness. Have I made my point clear. Perhaps not sufficiently clear. But I think I have made some progress. For a law to be a law, it must not be enforced on the weak alone or the favored alone, but it must be applied to all. The law I am trying to propound was well expressed by Christ: "Put your sword back in its place … for all who draw the sword will die by the sword." (Mat. 26:52) [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 70 180 2010-10-15T21:03:06Z Admin 1 Created page with 'We are now in a better position to ask again if power and knowledge are one and the same thing, or the two sides of one coin. What we see in life is that power, or authority, i...' wikitext text/x-wiki We are now in a better position to ask again if power and knowledge are one and the same thing, or the two sides of one coin. What we see in life is that power, or authority, is different from knowledge; we see for instance how the ruling elite is different from the intellectual elite. This dialectic relation can be better understood through analogy. Let us look for instance at agriculture. Crops used to grow without human intervention at first. And then people observed, and from first observing and then working at cultivating crops humankind developed scientific agriculture. We can go from here to observing what happens in social life, and to draw out laws and rules; and if our knowledge is sound enough, we can ourselves choose what will happen in the particular context we have investigated. In this spirit we can study authority and knowledge. Let us as a start say that authority is the fruit of knowledge, a particular type of knowledge. To understand this it is necessary that one realizes that knowledge is not just a homogeneous mass. Knowledge can be solid and hard, or can be soft; one may have knowledge and is conscious of it, or it may lie deep in his subconscious without his/her being aware of it. You may just reflect on our ability to speak – how the acquisition of words begins by learning words and expressions with effort, and then, as we use the learned things time after time, they are produced unconsciously. We can notice this more clearly in our learning a foreign tongue – you see how the process of language learning begins as an arduous effort, and ends up as a smooth flow in which the subconscious mind plays more and more the main part. It is especially noticeable how some rules of grammar are present in the conscious mind, but they may take a very long time to be used spontaneously, i.e. we have difficulty shifting them from the conscious to the subconscious mind. And some scholars of the grammar of a foreign tongue can tell you the rules to perfection, but still make so many errors when using the foreign language. It is quite relevant here to reflect how God reminds us that learning the facts of belief and disbelief, and getting to know the world, is not unlike this process of speaking, "Then, by the Lord of heavens and earth, this is the very Truth, as much as the fact that you can speak intelligently to each other." (51:23) Of course one can think of so many situations in which one's mastery of the skill proceeds from the conscious to the subconscious – riding a bicycle, typing, driving a car, swimming, and so on. We may go on to consider situations where the conscious and subconscious go in different directions, as happens in mental disturbances handled by psychiatrists. It also happens that one may consciously claim to be something which is only superficially admitted, while deep in the mind one knows himself/herself not to believe in that which he/she claims to believe – this is the condition of the hypocrite. This mismatch of the two levels of consciousness is an important topic in the Qur'an, such as in the following example: "Those whose efforts have been wasted in this life, while they thought that they were acquiring good by their works." (18:104) But how does all this pertain to the problem of authority and knowledge? Something definitely goes wrong in the Muslim world in this relationship between the body of scholars and the ruling elite. And we need to take this up in earnest. Since the mid 1960s I have felt the need to shed light on this situation, and back then I made a first attempt at this in my first book, The Way of Adam's son. Now in the right order of things knowledge should use power to serve the good of people. We see this for instance in harnessing powers like electricity to do us various services. While electricity can shock or even kill a human in case he/she does not know how to deal with it – it is really not in electricity's nature to surrender to human beings and to help them; it is rather people's learning about its laws that enabled them to subdue it and use it to their good. From this we may reflect on another point that is related to our discussion: people, even the scholarly ones, generally hold to things they have heard so many times, and deny what is new to them. But let us further reflect that some of the ideas and norms that we now accept without difficulty caused some people in the past to be tortured for holding them. It is often unfortunate how long it takes a novel idea to get to be commonly accepted. We may readily accept innovations in technology, but that is not so in social matters. It is much harder for social facts to get settled in the subconscious. All that we have gone through about this conscious-subconscious business is quite relevant to our discussion of the authority and knowledge and men of knowledge. Let us begin with stating that in our part of the world authority draws more on the subconscious than on the conscious; that is because we have not yet learned at the conscious level enough about the modern concept of authority. It takes time and effort to quite comprehend the modern sense of authority, and then more effort to be more familiarized with this developed sense of authority until it takes its place at the subconscious level. What determines how authority is like in our part of the world is the old notions that we inherited from previous centuries. Even when we declare and announce our conviction that authority must develop into a more democratic form, our conviction there is shallow and has not taken root. Such conviction will have to be more fully internalized before it is reflected in our various moods and activities, and will have to be seen in our art and literature. At present, it is still a brittle and tender thing. Therefore we are justified in saying that our knowledge in connection with authority is at variance with the practice of authority; but had our knowledge been solid enough, then authority as it is practiced will have to apply what is settled in our minds. The Qur'an teaches us how knowledge does not occur in an all-or-none state – Abraham, for instance assures his Lord that he does believe, but he needs to strengthen his faith, "Behold! Abraham said: 'My Lord! Show me how You give life to the dead.' He said: 'Do you not then believe?' He said: 'Yes! But to satisfy my own heart.' " (2:260) So if God guided Abraham here how to deepen his faith, how can we revive that right conception of authority, which has been in slumber for centuries and centuries? Look carefully, young man and young woman! The real authority belongs to knowledge; and when you see a scholar who has no authority, it is because he is not well-grounded in his knowledge. Do not be daunted by the power elite's strutting around – indeed, once firm and solid knowledge comes, the authority will without much ado transfer into the scholars' hand. When we now see the wrong people holding the reins, we must imagine them saying, without words: "Do not blame me, O scholars! blame rather yourselves! It is only that your knowledge is still lame and inadequate. If you had attained to sound knowledge, I would be at your service, rather than you at mine. You in fact know almost nothing about the new age, and that is shown in your bending low before this obsolete and outmoded kind of rule. You are even dazzled and subdued at the spectacle of modern knowledge, and would not rise to absorbing it. Such knowledge as you possess is brittle and not impressive at all!" [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 89 199 2010-10-15T21:34:42Z Admin 1 Created page with 'We need to be flexible in our understanding and in what we think to be true. History teaches us to review and revise, and to do that time and again. Have we not been shown to be ...' wikitext text/x-wiki We need to be flexible in our understanding and in what we think to be true. History teaches us to review and revise, and to do that time and again. Have we not been shown to be wrong about the most glaring of facts? Have we not been asserting all along that it is impossible to be wrong about something, like the sun, and then shown to be so wrong? Is there no reason enough to reconsider what we hold to be right? Having failed in attaining what we wish to attain must teach us, must force us to think again, and to put into our consideration that there is something wrong about our conception of things. We have so long insisted that Adam's son was wrong, and his aggressive brother was right; we took Adam's son to be crazy or something like that; but we were wrong. Can we then change our attitude? Can we reverse our attitudes? Generally and about this issue of spilling blood? But our values and ideas, taken without examination, still hold fast; and we still attribute causes to events without any reasonable examination or testing. Should I desist and say that all my going round the story of Adam's son is to no avail, is all in vain, is a cry in a valley? But no, I have no reason to accept Nietzsche's claim that history is no more than a series of lies, and a curse after a curse. I have no reason to accept the Muslims' assertion that the world is getting more violent, and it is going to be more violent. Am I the odd man, the discordant tune? How long shall I have to repeat and fish for my evidence here and there until the message finally gets home, until something happens in the minds of people? Is there something to remove those plugs from ears? The way Muslims perceive things makes them say: "What rubbish is this man dishing out while violence has been there in Islam, and for the support and promulgation of Islam? Where can you hide the great battles of the Prophet, Badr, Uhud, and all the great battles of Islam, the battles that raised the word of God?" I do realize the difficulty, especially when both God-fearing Muslims and secularists find violence to be the right solution. It is a universal shift that is needed, and not a minor thing. One point about this difficulty is that it is just a permanent and fixed idea in the minds of Muslims of any group. Yes, it is proving to be quite obstinate to shake, but with enough patience it will begin to change. I do realize that the Qur'an says about a certain community at a certain juncture that, "Those who reject Our Signs and the Meeting in the Hereafter – vain are their deeds: can they expect to be rewarded except as they wrought?" (7:147) But the Prophet, peace be upon him, would not give up, and he did see light at the end. It happens the world is primed for accepting this kind of idea. We really need to know the history of humankind, as the Qur'an says, "Travel through the earth and see how Allah originated creation." (29:20) Was not there a time when humans ate human flesh? When we say that creation is not a one-time act, that it is a process, and that there is always something more – well what is it that we consider more, or better, in the life of mankind? And more challenging to philosophers is the question about the criterion that lets us tell the false and the true. It is indeed the normal thing for a human to keep questioning his/her way, and others', of judging something to be right or wrong. The Qur'an leaves no doubt that what is true is true and what is false is false, that things must be tackled and sorted out, "The blind and the seeing are not alike; nor the depths of darkness and the light; nor are the chilly shade and genial heat of the sun;" (35:19-21), and "Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal." (41:34) To deny such basic facts would render any discussion pointless and in vain, although we must realize at the same time that there are always some borderline details that may not be decided upon, no matter how hard you search. The world goes by the law of the more beneficial, what does more good to more people for a longer time. Not to realize that there is some good to help people attain, and some harm to help them avert, would make life nonsense; and people who do not realize that may admit of no responsibility, and may turn to destruction: just a blind chaotic eruption. That is why history is so vital; and of course when you understand the past, your mind will see some steps ahead. We need to believe in development and progress, and when a human intervenes, with a good base of knowledge, he/she can accelerate change, and can eliminate the mistakes of the past. It is possible to view human history as one of treachery, falsehood, meanness and villainy; but it is equally possible to see in it the nobility, truthfulness, loyalty and virtue. One good example of good effort is the UNESCO's project of writing human history, started in 1950, and concluded in 1969; and then it was realized that they needed to rewrite history twenty years after the first project, and they actually started doing that, their first volume being published in 1994. That is good news, for as long as humans survive, their history must be written and rewritten. When will Muslims have an active role in such projects? Will they even read what others publish? How many copies will be sold of a book of this quality? How many Muslims will read it? It does not help us be just proud of Ibn Khaldoun. Indeed to realize this state of being well-guided, or right minded 'rashad, in Qur'anic terminology' must be quite hard; otherwise how can we understand there not appearing any 'upright' ruler after the four Upright Caliphs? But is it not worth our while to look into that, how we lost the state of right-mindedness, and how we can regain it? According to the Qur'an (7:147), people lose this faculty when they do not turn their attention to the signs around them, those who turn a blind eye to the facts around them. At the same time, to see right from wrong is within human ability, "Truth stands out clear from Error," as the Qur'an says. (2:256) Moses had this crave for acquiring right-mindedness, and he accepted the condition of the wise man to learn more right-mindedness, "May I follow you, on the footing that you teach me something of the Truth which you have been taught?" he asked, as the Qur'an reports. (18:66) We speak now of rationalizing our use of water or electricity, but what about our direction in life? The Qur'an stipulates a state of maturity for running one's own finance. "If you then find sound judgment in them, release their property to them;" (4:6) so what about this state of maturity in education, in social change? Unless we rise to a certain threshold of maturity we have no right to complain that the world is just not coming under control. As you see, I move about and find myself discussing the same things. Here I find that somehow we come to the issue of the two readings of the Qur'an, and men's responsibility to choose their way and to have control of changing their conditions. I keep raising a lot of questions, but can I give some answers? It is thrilling to see children, at a certain stage of their development, raise questions about all sorts of things; quite an endless battery of questions, but that stage seems to come to an end after about two years. Maybe they discover that those around them do not have the answers; and they go on accepting the world as incomprehensible. But it is fascinating, nonetheless, to observe this potential for a creative approach to life and the world, and this happens again with every new child. It is also interesting because the children reproduce in their questions the whole history of humankind. Some of children's questions are quite intriguing, but more intriguing is the question about the way to distinguish wrong from right. But we need to discuss this question often enough to make it much easier. Was it not impossible one day to think of domesticating animals? And then we came to a time when we no longer used them as our means of transport. Things are open to humans, and it is time that we worked on telling what is right and what is wrong. Do not you see how in many parts of the world they have gone beyond transferring rule through violent means, and even through inheritance? For other parts of the world, mainly in Muslim states, it is unthinkable. So human beings can develop and go ahead. But what they have achieved so far is modest. Does all this help, even a little bit? I am trying to indicate that we are not blocked from living a mature life. One important question is what it is that prevents men from attaining this stage of good guidance and maturity. According to the Qur'an the major hurdle is arrogance, which prevents people from being wakeful to the signs around them, "Those who behave arrogantly on the earth in defiance of right – I will turn away from My Signs; Even if they see all the Signs, they will not believe in them; and if they see the way of right conduct, they will not adopt it as the Way; but if they see the way of error, that is the Way they will adopt. For they have rejected Our Signs, and failed to take warning from them." (7:146). When a human can turn his head from the signs before him, he is really arrogant. Have they not learnt in many parts of the world about a rational way of transferring rule? And they learnt it from observing the facts of life, not from revelation from heaven. Again you see how much of what we attribute to God is really the responsibility of humans. Somehow Muslims find it more convenient to discuss that which is in heaven, but I like to come down to earth. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 69 179 2010-10-15T21:02:17Z Admin 1 Created page with 'At each level, specialization, starting with the body organs, is vital for human life; and in the same way as the body organs work individually and collectively, experts and spec...' wikitext text/x-wiki At each level, specialization, starting with the body organs, is vital for human life; and in the same way as the body organs work individually and collectively, experts and specialists work in the social sphere as individuals and collectively, as organizations. But in either case a specialist must work for the good of society, in the same way as each organ of the body's works for the good of the whole body. Once an organ's activity is not in unison with the rest of organs, it turns into a sinister factor. Is not cancer an activity of the body's, with the only difference that it goes out of hand and does not work in unison with the rest of the body? To ask about the relationship between power or authority and knowledge, two specializations of society, is the same as asking about the thinking person and the acting person, the designer and the executive. In these pairs, efficient cooperation must be maintained for productive relation. Should action go ahead in disregard of thinking, it will not be fruitful; and in the same way, to think in disregard of action is to think in a vacuum. A human does some work first of all, then his/her work engenders some knowledge; and from observing how the performed action leads to certain results, cause and effect are connected, which is vital knowledge. In this way a human understands profitable and good action. Knowledge accumulates as a human observes the relationship between the cause and effect. Later, it often happens that knowledge is conveyed to others before they are involved in action. The logic of things in real terms is that action comes first, and then knowledge is engendered from observing action, from noting the effect that results from action. But as more connections of causes and effects are observed, they are recorded and transmitted as sciences and experiences. Those who ignore past experience will be losers in knowledge, and the quality of their action will be poor. We may reflect here on names and things, or designations and their referents. A human gets first to know something, and as his/her knowledge of the thing grows he/she assigns a designation to that thing. So in real terms, the referent occurs first, and at a certain stage it acquires a designation or name. But when we teach a child, we teach him/her with words before those words acquire a concrete sense. It must be clear from the above discussion that any attempt to separate knowledge from action is meaningless. Knowledge is the accumulation of action. We acquire experience from the accumulation of action, and that is knowledge and science. So much experience of early men must have been lost before men learned how to preserve it in vocal or optical mediums. Of course, a human had his/her brain to store his/her experience, but a brain decomposes with the death of the human, and so all its contents are lost; but when a human first used oral transmission of information, and later written expression, his/her experiments, and his/her memory, gained permanence. What men found out could now be revised and modified in the light of more experience. And now of course we analyze language in specialized sciences, like linguistics and semiotics. Let us make it clear that no matter how developed and sophisticated sciences grow, they must remain closely tied to the actual state of things in the world. Action must remain the source of knowledge. The Qur'an has urged a human to keep his/her eyes open (as in 11:6). We may refer to a tradition of the Prophet's as an illustration of this work-knowledge relationship. The tradition goes like this: "A believer may not be bitten twice from the same hole." (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim) What we have in this text is putting experience before knowledge, as it asserts that it is not compatible with faith that one falls in the same error twice. Knowledge is here seen to be learning from a certain experience that one has gone through. On the other hand, one may go forth into action of which he has had no precedent; but after going through the experience, one may make conclusions; and there is science for you! From this it must be seen that there is no direct answer as to which comes first, action or knowledge. This must help many people who give science precedence over action. The Qur'an would not let knowledge go in disregard of action (see for instance 19:96). But whenever we fail to find precedents, that is, when no scientific facts exist to shed light on our way, we feel forced to go again into a trial-and-error venture. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 99 209 2010-10-15T21:44:18Z Admin 1 Created page with 'There is a relation between concepts and behaviors. Concepts and ideas may be put right by learning from the outcomes of behaviors. This may not be clear to many people. Believer...' wikitext text/x-wiki There is a relation between concepts and behaviors. Concepts and ideas may be put right by learning from the outcomes of behaviors. This may not be clear to many people. Believers or non-believers, we need to comprehend the system of the world. Do we not all need to get over this mischief and bloodshed? It is especially painful that some find in this bloodshed a way to coming close to God. But men will not work out the sense of all this unless they believe that there is a difference between one way and another, as the Qur'an says, "Are the blind equal with those who see? Or the depths of darkness equal with Light?" (13:16). People will have their nervous system to put to use for distinguishing things. But how do we know that one's nervous system is nearer to truth than the other? The answer is that what is truer is what is more profitable and longer lasting. The pyramids of Egypt are an example. How much did they cost? And what good did they do to how many people? God provides enough examples, like this one: "After this it is you, the same people, who slay among yourselves, and banish a party of you from their homes; assist their enemies against them, in guilt and rancor; and if they come to you as captives, you ransom them, though it was not lawful for you to banish them. Then is it only a part of the Book that you believe in, and do you reject the rest? But what is the reward for those among you who behave like this but disgrace in this life? – and on the Day of Judgment they shall be consigned to the most grievous penalty. For Allah is not unmindful of what you do." (2:85) It is not a new phenomenon that people are slain, or banished from their homes, as the Qur'an tells us: "And the Unbelievers said to their Messengers: 'Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or you shall return to our religion.' But their Lord inspired this Message to them: 'Verily We shall cause the wrong-doers to perish!'" (14:13) In fact, very early in the Prophet's career, Waraqah bin Nowfal told him, "I wish I were with you when your people expelled you." The Prophet said, "Will they expel me?" And Waraqah replied, "Yes, no one ever came with a thing like what you are calling for but faced his people's hostility." (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim) The two most prominent crimes in the Qur'an are slaying and expelling from home. I know that nothing is more serious than associating any god with God, but that is for God to punish. But in this world it is these two crimes that should not be tolerated nor connived at in the Muslim community – and how can it be a Muslim community if it tolerates that? We need to define succinctly when and who has the right to put to death; when it is legitimate; and when killing is prohibited and against religious commands. We need to be very clear as each person has a big claim to be right; and it is easy to fall in a state of chaos, where a human is not holding on to the firm hold-on. It is especially when you are strong that you do not likely to consider the legitimacy of bringing harm to others. And we live in the midst of confusion, where right and wrong are mixed up, and doing good and doing harm are mixed up, so that the common person is most bewildered. How can we expect the common people to distinguish right sense from bad sense when the cultural leaders do no distinguish them? Of course it is when our hearts are free from the wish for spilling blood or rejoicing at the spilling of blood that our hands will be clean. As I understand the Qur'an you may not aggress against a person who does not brandish his weapon, "if they withdraw from you, and instead send you guarantees of peace, then Allah has opened no way for you to war against them." (4:90) So opt for peace and you are eligible for the Qur'an's protection; yourself, your fortune, your family will be protected; and you are safe in this world and the next. Can we now define what soul is sacred, as we see it in a verse like, "Those who do not invoke, with Allah, any other god, nor slay such life as Allah has made sacred, except for just cause." (25:68) Well, let us imagine a spectacle in which two persons are fighting; we would be in doubt who is in the right and who is in the wrong; but if you see a person assaulting another, and the other person holds back his hand, will there be any doubt? That is why I call to the position of Adam's son, as mentioned by the Messenger, peace be upon him, when he said, "Be like Adam's son," (An authentic tradition, reported by al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood.) As you see, nobody can force you to deviate from the way of Adam's son; you have only to hold to it, and in this way you show who has good sense. Insist on being in the light, and do not enter the dark tunnel. An aggressor can kill me, but he cannot make a killer of me. That is how we may understand "to hold back their hands (from fight) but establish regular prayers and spend in regular charity;" (4:77); and "Nay, do not obey him: but bow down in adoration, and bring yourself the closer to Allah." (96:19). This road is the way of light; you do not get involved in spilling blood, feeling uncertain whether your deed was lawful or unlawful. You will be in accord with the tradition, "Break your sword." (an authentic tradition, reported by al-Tirmidhi, and Abu Dawood) Let us also contemplate another tradition, "When two Muslims clash with their swords, both the killer and the killed are destined to enter Hell." Someone asked, "But how is that so, Messenger of God! We understand that the killer must enter Hell; but what about the killed?" He said, "He was intent on killing the other." He was telling what is right for us, was he not? What happens that Muslims forget all about such traditions? I do not claim to be an erudite scholar of Islam; but I will keep my hand clean. I keep mindful of that statement by Adam's son, as reported in the Qur'an, "If you stretch your hand against me to slay me, it is not for me to stretch my hand against you to slay you: for I do fear Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds." (5:28) I keep to this square foot of the sacredness of the human spirit, and from there I do all my efforts to spread light. Does it strike you how much peace it gives the heart to feel that the other can kill me, but cannot make a killer of me? And the world is moving in that direction. So, make of your spirit a sacred thing, and hold on to the way of light. Do not let go for one second, for it is the way of good sense. The problem of course is that truth does not occur in life as completely pure, nor does falsehood occur as completely evil. I know that one gets really confused. Some Muslims are in a hurry; they may quote the verse, "If two parties among the Believers fall into quarrel, you make peace between them: but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then you fight against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of Allah," (49:9) as if such fighting as happens in our age abides by this verse. Indeed, Muslims have for many centuries lost the sense of good guidance. What we have had for many centuries is misguidance fighting misguidance. Good guidance is the kind of community that was established at the hands of the Prophet and his companions. They did not use violence to establish it. So do not accept to be a gun in the hands of someone. It is not a light thing that one spills blood; and the Messenger was conscious that that would happen; hence his saying, "Do not after my passing revert to misguidance, slaying each other." (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim) For how many centuries have Muslims tried to establish a well-guided situation with misguided means! It appears that things are just accepted because they have been with us for such a long time. Do you know enough about the khawarij? Has it occurred to you that Muslims now accept their way and adopt it? They have been described by the Prophet as outside the Islamic peal, though they pray more than the rest of Muslims and fast more. Well, is not the distinguishing mark of this group that they have good intentions but do not mind to abandon Islamic teachings for realizing their purpose? So please be wary; do not follow their way. Choose the way of clarity and good sense; do not stain your hand. Did not the Messenger establish the Muslim state without shedding the blood of one person? Is it not the way of light? Why do we forget? Let us not be like those who are described in the verse, "even if they see all our Signs, they will not believe in them; and if they see the way of right conduct, they will not adopt it as the Way; but if they see the way of error, that is the Way they will adopt." (7:146) Is there some light perceived in all this? Even a very little glow would be something. Have we gone forward? Well, let us not lose hope, for if we are far from good sense, were not other nations far from democracy when it was new, but then realized its benefits and adopted it? And history will certainly support that; so it is no use trying to stop history. But we need to analyze things as they happened to Muslims; they lost both good sense and democracy; and we need to know how. Because there are so many nations which have gone ahead of us. We only see events, but do not get to the laws behind them. We need to understand what deludes us; what makes misguidance alluring in our eyes, and why we are prepared to sacrifice our life and the life of others for the sake of this way. It will be noticed that our disease is one and the same, a disease that afflicts both the religious-minded and the secularist, though it is displayed in two different contexts. The religious-minded cannot reconsider a life of good sense; nor can the secularist consider a democratic way of life. Is not that curious? How different, how hostile, but they have the same mindset. Can we tackle that? A human resorts to violence when he/she fails to find the right way. Remember that Adam's other son resorted to killing when his sacrifice was rejected. For an act to be accepted with God, it has to realize two conditions: that it is done for God alone, and that it is done according to rules. This topic is discussed in detail in another book of mine, Action: Ability and Will. Two of the examples of different kinds of action that I listed there are: 1. A mother who is the perfect model of sincerity to her child; but because she is ignorant of the rules of hygiene, she might cause him/her to be disfigured (with polio.) This is a case of sincerity without correctness 2. A doctor who knows the right medicine, but does not care for the patient's cure, so he gives him the wrong orders. This is a case of correctness, without sincerity. I may now say that the Muslim community, including its two varieties, the devout and the secularist, fail because they are of the first type. I have no doubt as to their good intentions, but they do lack correctness. I am sure that all parties do intend to see their nation prosper and do well, but they, in all their varieties, have no confidence that they can get anywhere through intellectual means. They do not accept the intellectual challenge. They have no confidence that their ideas can do well in the intellectual arena. Both camps are intellectually defeated. They neither have faith in their ideas, nor in human beings. They feel that if people were given the choice, they would not choose the right faith. And so people resort to physical means. They assume that if truth and falsehood were given equal opportunity, falsehood would prevail – a most dangerous assumption. For what is that truth that you want to devote yourself to if it cannot stand the test against falsehood? The Qur'an says otherwise, "Nay, We hurl the Truth against falsehood, and it knocks out its brain, and behold, falsehood perishes;" (21:18) "And say: 'Truth has now arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is by its nature bound to perish;'" (17:81) and "Say: 'Verily my Lord casts the mantle of Truth over His servants – He that has full knowledge of all that is hidden.' Say: 'The Truth has arrived, and Falsehood neither creates anything new, nor restores anything.'" (34:48-49); and promises victory to believers, "We will, without doubt, help Our Messengers and those who believe, both in this world's life and on the Day when the Witnesses will stand forth." (40:51) It must seem paradoxical that the Qur'an promises victory to truth, although we see most wretched facts before us in this world. We should not wonder that so many people are pessimistic; for in their hurry they take truth to be defeated: even a scholar as distinguished as Toynbee is not sure that civilizations can stand the spiritual challenges in their way, and we saw how Nietzsche sees nothing in history but meanness and falsehood. But I refuse to view history within these short terms, nor through scattered situations. We need to think of history in terms of humankind's progress and development. Are we not descendants of men who ate human flesh, and offered humans as sacrifice? The advance is immense; there must be no doubt about that. We no longer see men being put to death for their ideas (except in the Muslim world.) So let it not be maintained that truth does not have the strength in itself to prevail over falsehood. We must not just let people believe that if truth and falsehood were given equal opportunity, falsehood would prevail. To think like that is thinking the worst about God, about truth, and about humankind. Nothing is more harmful than to take this idea for granted. We still hear so many people say that truth without the support of physical force is a myth. Indeed, if a human thinks that his/her faith will be defeated, it will be defeated, with or without force. Any idea that does not have in itself the power of survival will not survive. While sound thought will prevail. You see how the Prophet, peace be upon him, prevented his companions from any physical force – it was just pure intellectual debate; and they went on like this to they day they announced their state, never swerving a minute. Is not this another example of how far we have been unfair to Islam? How far we disfigured it? Do not we have evidence enough in the Prophet's experience that truth, and truth alone, will come out triumphant in the conflict? Does it not show that for good sense to prevail you do not use misguided ways? Not a little and not a minimum – there must be no violent means at all in the bringing about of a community ruled by good sense. Not even by mistake did a Muslim kill a non-believer in Mecca, despite the torture some Muslims were subjected to, that in some cases ended in their death. Have you heard of a polytheist being assassinated? And this is not weakness. It is that intellectual conflict must be intellectual – no physical element should confuse it. It is in this way that good sense is distinguished from misguidance. The contrast is striking. The first Muslims felt sure about the light they bore, and they did get it through without resort to force; and we feel weak, and think that with force we can overcome others; but we cannot, neither with force, nor without. But if people do not accept this, then history will have more to inflict on them until they learn. For learn they must. It must settle in their minds that no rule made with force is well-guided, nor will it be at a later stage. It is not enough that those who believe are really believers in the right faith. One can be very enthusiastic about what he takes to be true, but it is not completely true or completely untrue. For those who believe that Islam can be forced on people are doing great disfavor to Islam; it is not what the Qur'an teaches, "No compulsion!" It must also be added that truth will itself lead to strength and solidity. A community built on truth is not weak. In a sane, well-built society, people believe by their own volition, and in this way they are not the servile subjects of the strong man who has dictated what they have to believe. I think I have said enough about a clean hand, about not staining our hands with blood, about letting the faith get home on its own, about Adam's son; and I think I supported that with enough evidence from the Qur'an and the Prophet's, peace be upon him, traditions, both spoken, and his own application, and his companions'. But have I produced the desired change? Is there solidity enough in the practice of the Prophet and his companions to resist this general trend in our community? We always say that their life is the model for the whole world, and for all humans. It is so. So can we accept their lead in this particular issue? For truth to have its way, it does not need any violence. It is clear enough. And we have the light standing there for all to behold. It is also the realistic and optimal method for change, clear like the sun and the moon. And the Qur'an provides so many experiences of numerous prophets and believers to support this method. It relates that some believers had to suffer a lot, some paid with their own lives, "Woe to the makers of the pit of fire, fire supplied abundantly with fuel: Behold! They sat over against the fire, and they witnessed all that they were doing against the Believers. And they ill-treated them for no other reason than that they believed in Allah, Exalted in Power, Worthy of all Praise!" (85:4-8); Pharaoh's sorcerers said, when he was about to execute them, "For us, we are but sent back to our Lord: But you wreak your vengeance on us simply because we believed in the Signs of our Lord when they reached us! Our Lord! Pour out on us patience and constancy, and take our souls unto You as Muslims who bow to Your Will!" (7:125-126). Even in the face of death and torture, believers before us stuck to their way of faith, practicing it, calling to it, not stretching their hand with any kind of violence for its support. This is the way to make sure that the point of conflict is crystal clear. To bring out most vividly the point of conflict is most vital. It is indeed in a human's nature when he/she sees two persons arguing to probe and see what argument each has to determine who is nearer the truth. This is something that Islam cares for a lot. Many of the pre-Islam Arabs made it a point of pride that they joined the conflict with one side against the other, without asking about the fairness of the issue; this is the famous tribal fanaticism. But Islam set a new principle: You will not side with a person, no matter how dear and near, unless his/her case is right, "O you who believe! Stand firmly for Allah, as witnesses to fair dealing, and let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to Piety: and fear Allah. For Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do;" (5:8) and "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be against rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both." (4:135) The Prophet, peace be upon him, urged his companions to stop a Muslim, even when he happens to be a dear friend, from behaving aggressively or unfairly, "Deter his unfair behavior" he said (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim). It was especially striking as it came after the pre-Islam Arabs' boasting in their poetry that they rushed to help a friend or relative, never asking what the dispute was about. For if you ask, then you are not loyal to the tribe, even when the prey is not the culprit, but someone from his tribe. The laws developed from there, from protecting the tribe, to being national, to being universal. Let it be said that for Arabs and Muslims, they have not gone beyond the tribal stage; they have not yet developed to the national stage – it is a stage they will have to go through to get to the stage of universality which is the idea of Islam. It is on this basis that I said that the European Union is a new phenomenon in the world, and I bear the responsibility for my claim. But let me add here that there is something lacking in the European Union: they do not view humans as equal. They did prove that they are the most advanced (and I can imagine the Muslim's annoyance at this statement,) but they have not gone far enough. Something else must be added, although I did mention it at the beginning of this book. It is not enough that one announces that he believes in universality. Do you not see that people speak of justice and equality but in any crisis they revert to their tribal ties, for those are deeper settled in their hearts. That shows you that it will take a lot of work to get the idea of universality to be the basis for people's behavior in real-life situations. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 97 207 2010-10-15T21:41:14Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Can the Gulf war be good enough for us to realize that the age of heroics is over, the age of imposing solutions from above? Will we put an end to our young men's offering themse...' wikitext text/x-wiki Can the Gulf war be good enough for us to realize that the age of heroics is over, the age of imposing solutions from above? Will we put an end to our young men's offering themselves as prey to the gods of violence and compulsion, while our adults keep mum about it! Do we not have a better alternative? Why do not we take them by hand to a more fruitful way? The way of uprightness is waiting for us, to learn and to impart to the poor crowds. I do realize that we have noble purposes, but the means to them are quite beyond our comprehension. We want to see Palestine liberated, we want to see the Arabs united, and we want to bring back some confidence among Muslims. I do not dispute all that. But we definitely are miserably unable to find the right means to our targets. We are in this world, are we not? And we need to understand why the Europeans can go ahead with their unity, while we cannot. We need to understand, and we can understand. Let it be clear to everyone that we are not doubting anybody's intentions, but we somehow have not learned the calculation of profits and losses. Is there any doubt that Arabs will profit a lot if they unite? And unite without anybody's losing anything! We have the example of the European Union, people who chose the right way and succeeded, and we have the example of the Soviet Union, people who chose the wrong way of compulsion and failed. It will be an excellent thing if we deal with the verses of the Qur'an as we deal with other texts, as for example when we read, "Those against whom the Word of your Lord has been verified would not believe – even if every Sign was brought to them, until they see for themselves the Penalty grievous." (10:96-97) It would do us much good to think of the divine Writ in terms of conscious analysis, quantitatively and qualitatively, or maybe with reference to dollars. It must come to be generally perceived that faith pays in very real terms. There is the unveiling of the facts of the way of mature thinking, and there is the boldness to adopt it and act by its dictates, as it takes temerity to follow this little-trodden road. Is it not hard to call on people to follow the example of the European Union, when the Europeans have long been our traditional enemies? [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 87 197 2010-10-15T21:33:16Z Admin 1 Created page with 'People mix up things, and are baffled. We say that what does more good will stay, and what does harm will disappear: they take it in a narrow sense and so deny a great law. This ...' wikitext text/x-wiki People mix up things, and are baffled. We say that what does more good will stay, and what does harm will disappear: they take it in a narrow sense and so deny a great law. This law, however, is the basis for the improvement of life, that the more beneficial will supersede what is less beneficial. It is the law for dealing with efforts, convictions, and ideas; the law of 'the better and more enduring.' It is this law that Iqbal had in mind when, in his book The Revival of Religious Thought he said that the criterion for deciding the value of a civilization, a culture, or a religion was the kind of individual it produced, and the amount of good it did to humankind. This is the law I am trying to put forth, the law adopted by the prophets; it is the law that mankind will have to accept, sooner or later. And even in the issue of monotheism, we shall have to accept the amount of good that is brought about through belief in the One God as the proof that monotheism is a sound belief. Up till now we have been discussing the profitable in connection with time, through following up history; but we need also to consider the profitable across space. It is not a beneficial thing that gives advantage to some individuals at the expense of the majority, that favors a certain group while it harms another. Biased and skewed views of the law of the more beneficial and more extensive across time will ruin it, and it has been the reason for ruining civilizations, religions, and cultures. It is so because the law does not relate to an individual or a small group – the more extensive is its population the truer it will prove to be. You see people accept a law even when it is severe if it applies to all, without being prejudiced in favor of some. That is why the Prophet, peace be upon him, says, "Those who were before you encountered failure for they would acquit the notable person if he stole, but punished the humble." (Reported by al-Bukhari and Muslim) And we may say in the light of this law that the UN Security Council may be on the way to destruction if it persists in granting some of its members the Veto Right. The Qur'an teaches us "when you judge between man and man, you judge with justice" (4:58): for justice to be justice, it must be even-handed justice, applied to all. Disbelief and polytheism must be understood as inequality among people. Some Muslim scholars did notice that a state ruling with justice would survive, even if it were disbelieving; and a state would perish if it ruled with injustice, even it were a Muslim state. People get confused about applying the law of doing good: they see it apply, as they assume, to even the burglar seeking to gain what is good for himself; but they are wrong here, as the burglar's purpose is for quite a short term, and he seeks good for himself alone. He certainly does not think of even the long term for himself, let alone thinking of the good of the majority of people. Of course so many people seek good for themselves, but fail to look far into the future, and fail to see how much good they do to others. That is the meaning of our failing to see the value of history. When the Qur'an compares nations and peoples to individuals, what they have in common is having a life span, but of course with the great difference in the duration of the life span of an individual in comparison with a people or a civilization. Ibn Khaldoun awoke to the fact that while history appeared, to the casual observer, as no more than an aggregate of so many details about nations and rulers; its essence was great insight, an investigation of the causes of events, and a revelation of the genesis of creation. Let me tell you how I view the importance of history, which the Qur'an accepts as the witness for its truth. Now nations have for some time awakened to the importance of inoculations against smallpox and polio; the WHO is proud to offer a prize for anyone who can detect any case of smallpox outside labs. And even countries low on the curve of knowledge and education have learned this trick. Well, let me say then that if those who did the explosions in the World Trade Center, in the Tokyo tunnels, and, before that in Mecca in 1979, if they had been inoculated well with historical knowledge they would not have done it; the virus for blind destruction would have been killed within their minds. But of course, it must be a thorough and well reasoned knowledge, showing the transitions from stage to stage, from one phase of human development to the next. Do you see how far historical insight can go? It can do away with mischief and destructiveness, and any pointless spilling of human blood. And this does not only apply to obscure young men – it applies to world-known heads of states. All have been led into spilling human blood by their lacking historical knowledge. The Qur'an's method in narrating the events about past nations and peoples is to give some details and then comment with generalizations like, "Thus do We explain the Signs in detail; and perchance they may turn to Us;" (7:174) "We have explained in detail in this Qur'an, for the benefit of mankind, every kind of similitude: but man is, in most things, contentious;" (18:54-55) and "Such were the populations We destroyed when they committed iniquities; but We fixed an appointed time for their destruction." (18:59). The Qur'an will not fail to show people's responsibility for what befell them: they failed to link causes and effects. But people are mostly blind to the consequences of human conduct. We all know the extreme case of the robber who does his robbery, who is reinforced by quick results, and is blind to the catastrophe that usually follows. In the same way, the colonizers saw the quick results of their occupation, and maybe they did later realize the mischief they had done as they had hampered the coming of the era of reform. Foucault divined this fear of knowledge in people's minds, what he called 'the deep fear of the logos.' It is the blind fear of losing the quick advantages. Men would not like to consider the long-term results. The states which enjoy the Veto Right would not like to face the long-term sinister consequences of their holding on to that privilege. Most of the leaders are unaware of the curses that will pour on their names in the future, for all the great havoc that followed on their quick advantages. When we recite in the Qur'an, "Such is the punishment of your Lord when He punishes communities in the midst of their wrong: grievous, indeed, and severe is His punishment;" 11:102) the normal reaction must be to shudder; it is not right that we pass by such verses feeling nothing. Let us not be less sensitive than the Indian philosopher who insisted on speaking out his mind to the king, and when his disciples warned him against it he said: "I realize the risk, but I cannot imagine letting history put on record that this philosopher was alive at the time of a tyrannical king without speaking to him." I wonder if some of us have the historical sense, by not letting the present conduct continue as that would be a disgrace in the eyes of our future generations. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 72 182 2010-10-15T21:06:23Z Admin 1 Created page with 'By showing the distinction between physical conflict and intellectual conflict, the prophets liberated humankind. They established a new and liberating state of affairs when they...' wikitext text/x-wiki By showing the distinction between physical conflict and intellectual conflict, the prophets liberated humankind. They established a new and liberating state of affairs when they put forward debate as the basis for changing the contents of the mind. It is a really new type of challenge; it calls a human to move on from muscular challenge to intellectual challenge, from conflict that is more suitable for animals, to a conflict that is worthy of the human being. An expressive verse of the Qur'an about this shift is "Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands our clear from Error." (2:256) This move from the struggle of physical force to the conflict of ideas is decisive. So much mischief results from confounding the two types of conflict – no one who understands 'Let there be no compulsion in religion' should be led to confound the two. Remember that those who try to challenge you by trying to lead you to a physical clash when your cause is intellectual, are essentially people who have nothing of any solidity to put up for an intellectual conflict or debate. It may help if I provide some details about the evolution of ideas. An idea is conceived as an embryo for some time before it is born, and when it is born it is such a weak being. At that time it requires a lot of tender care and support to acquire some sturdiness. Indeed, the foundation for the intellectual argument was laid down at the same time when the first human being was created, or even just before his creation: this is what we find in the Qur'an: "Behold, your Lord said to the angels: 'I will create a vicegerent on earth.' They said: 'Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? While we do celebrate Your praises and glorify Your holy name?' He said: 'I know what you do not know.' And he taught Adam the nature [and naming] of all things." (2:30-31) You see how the angels were baffled – why should God place on earth a creature that was unlike anything they had known? But God did not say much about this new creation; He merely said, "I know what you do not know" (2:30) The angels expressed their pessimism about human future – they expected only mischief from this new creature. But God's reply was laconic, though it stressed hope in humankind, that the way was open for something other than doing mischief and the spilling of blood. But let us move from the unseen to the material world, how men responded to that new spirit breathed in man, when man learned the naming of things, when he was ordained to learn through reading, when he was entrusted with putting right his life, correcting his ways, and dealing with his world through a study of the outcome of any behavior. Man was given the potential to transcend the laws that restrict other creatures to the physical sphere. It is your duty not to regress to the laws of the body; let your aspiration soar to the laws of the soul, to knowledge, to thinking and to creativity. Jalalud-Deen al-Rumi, the great poet, has something to help us understand this higher order open to man, in the symbolic story of the chickpea. In this story, a woman is cooking chickpeas in a pot, and she addresses a chickpea in these words: "Do not blame me, chickpea, that I boil you! Once you were nothing but a lump of earth, and then you were promoted to a blooming flower in the field, then to a new fruit. And now you are rising higher: through cooking you mature, and you will be a constituent of a human." And the chickpea replies: "Yes, ma'am, let your fire blaze hotter! Let me rise to a higher order!" Is not this parable most significant? Why should a human regress to the domain of the body, when he/she is endowed with the soul and the intellect! This is indeed what Adam's son attained: he established the new order, the law of knowledge and understanding to counter the law of the body. It is unfortunate that the human often does not sense this right for him/her to think about things in the heavens and on the earth. The prophets' mission was in this: to urge a human to renounce all fetters to his/her mind's right to wander and wonder; therefore we were taught this verse in the Qur'an, "Let there be no compulsion in religion" (2:256). And the good thing about the prophets is that they did not teach thinking as a sermon; they actually practiced it. They did away with the high-handedness of physical force as a factor in the debate of ideas and faith. It was raising a human to a new order. When you hold on to the debate of ideas, you proclaim peace for the other, and you are entitled to get peace for yourself. You announce that you leave the domain of repression and compulsion and enter the domain of "no compulsion" in faith and thought. If you still do not see the discrimination between intellectual and physical conflicts, then your faith has not taken its place in your heart. It is only a weakling in the sphere of ideas who resorts to physical force. Try all the time to remember Abraham (as in the Qur'an, 6:80 etc.), and his rejection of being intimidated as long as he holds to his ideas and calls to a debate of ideas. Such rejection of fear cannot happen by acting out a part. It only happens as a result of steady faith. He most lucidly perceived who was entitled to feel safe and who could not enjoy this contentment. And Abraham was in perfect harmony with his ideas from beginning to end. He asked his people what made them worship the idols? Did those idols cause harm? Did they benefit their followers? Abraham lays the basis for the best realistic dealing with the things of life: to see the benefits and harm as the basic criterion; his adversaries, on the other hand, found it sufficient for them to decide about things on the basis of their forefathers' way. Elsewhere in the Qur'an, God lays down the general criterion in different words, "Thus Allah shows Truth and Vanity. For the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth;" (13:17) as the major law that governs the world: what does good will stay; and what does harm will go. Of course, people may be deluded when they see falsehood survive for some time, but the law will remain true at present and in the future. What is good for people will stay, and what brings harm, or no longer does any good, will vanish: we should not even cry over its disappearance. It gives one great contentment to know this law of history; a human has no reason to worship things of the earth, and no reason to hold any thing as associate to God. Hence Abraham's feeling of security. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 86 196 2010-10-15T21:31:39Z Admin 1 Created page with 'What happened that blinded us to the mission of prophets? What concealed from our eyes the mercy they taught so that we gave the infliction of pain first place? This is one of th...' wikitext text/x-wiki What happened that blinded us to the mission of prophets? What concealed from our eyes the mercy they taught so that we gave the infliction of pain first place? This is one of the things that make me say that the real age of prophets is ahead of us and not behind us. While the prophets taught people to compete in doing more good, we took up the principle of inflicting more hurt. But their principles will come to dominate. If we fail to adopt their message, there will come a generation that does uphold it and adopt it. Of course you would not expect Muslims to bear the message of mercy to humankind, or to have much mercy for humankind, when they do not show mercy in dealings among Muslim groups. And all this has come up most glaringly in the Gulf War, our great tragedy. Is there not evidence enough in this war? Does it not refute convincingly all the big claims? All our hidden and denied malaise was brought out through this war. We did not show mercy, not even loyalty to our next of kin and brethrens, not to mention mercy for our fellow human beings. Neither the causes were merciful, nor the so-called cure was. We really acted in flagrant defiance of all the merciful message of the prophets. We believed in destruction and eradicating man; we craved vindictively to do mischief. The Qur'an teaches otherwise, "Those who behave arrogantly on the earth in defiance of right – I will turn them away from My Signs: Even if they see all the Signs, they will not believe in them; and if they see the way of right conduct, they will not adopt it as the Way; but if they see the way of error, that is the Way they will adopt. For they have rejected Our Signs, and failed to take warning from them." (7:146). And when we read 'I will turn them away' let us remember the two readings of the Qur'an. A human has done enough to deserve being turned away from the right way; there have been changes in the concepts and values in proportion to the torture inflicted on a human. Do we realize that very stringent laws control a human's being merciful or being hard-hearted, and that those laws are not beyond our reach? How can we learn and teach others to help the sick person to heal, and not to kill him? Do we enjoy seeing the disease, or seeing the afflicted being eliminated? There is really no need, for no matter how hateful a person appears to us, his disease is one thing and he is another. And you see that the disease is common to all of us, so why pour our malice on the head of some individuals and groups? The tragic thing is that we do our best to protect the disease, and are ready to lay our life for perpetuating it! You know how arduous and challenging a human's struggle with viruses that attack the body is; but indeed we have a more arduous and challenging struggle with viruses that block understanding. These intellectual viruses are so elusive that they keep escaping detection. It is something like what Foucault said, "I am not where you seek me; I am here, where I stand mocking you and your search." As Skinner comments, if Plato, Aristotle, and Gale were resurrected among us, they would not understand one page of the modern books on math, biology, or medicine; but if Socrates or Diogenes were resurrected and read some of the modern books on politics, ethics and international law, they would have no difficulty understanding them, for they will find humankind where they left it more than two millenniums ago. It is not that in these latter spheres it is not possible to make breakthroughs? No it is not so, and some thinkers and philosophers begin to grope for something new. But somehow it scares them to suspect a new world, and they stop short. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 83 193 2010-10-15T21:18:51Z Admin 1 Created page with 'The Qur'an scolds those who deny their responsibility for their sins, "Those who give partners to Allah will say: 'If Allah had wished, we should not have given partners to Him, ...' wikitext text/x-wiki The Qur'an scolds those who deny their responsibility for their sins, "Those who give partners to Allah will say: 'If Allah had wished, we should not have given partners to Him, nor would our fathers; nor should we have had any taboos.'" (6:148) They claim that it is God's will that they attribute associates to Him, but the verse goes on to say, "So did their ancestors argue falsely, until they tasted of Our wrath. Say: 'Have you any certain knowledge? If so, produce it before us. You follow nothing but conjecture: you do nothing but lie.'" (6:148) It may be noted that this latter half of the verse has several things to say about the various ways of justification that those people are using: that what they say is not unlike what people used to say in the past, so they may just look at history and see; that such practice would only cause destruction and suffering "until they tasted of Our wrath"; that those people do not put forth any concrete evidence for their behavior " Have you any certain knowledge? If so, produce it before us," that what those people say is claims that are based on only whims and desires. The words of the next verse are also important, "Say: 'With Allah is the argument that reaches home: if it so had been His Will, He could indeed have guided you all,'" (6:149) for if people are led astray they must not think that they do it against God's will or in spite of Him. God is able to make people just behave as is ordained for them, and the sun and moon and stars prove that it is easy for God to do so; but it is His will that a human should bear the responsibility. (I devoted a whole book to this idea, Until They Change that Which Is in Their Own Souls, but I do not claim, either about that book or about this, that I have exhausted this topic. More and more researches must be written about it.) The point is that God will not change people's condition unless and until they change proportionate things in their thoughts, attitudes, values, convictions, etc. But unfortunately many people would not come to embracing truth by considering the correctness of what they are admonished to consider. They would not believe until they have suffered enough to awaken. How much good I expect the young men and young women to do if they take up such topics and elaborate on them. Not only research and exploration! We need courses to be run, and numbers of people to attend to have their way of viewing things transformed into something more enlightened. Indeed, thinking of the future helps me be hopeful. I can imagine how when people take up these ideas, they will have peace in their heart, the peace of right guidance, in the same way as Abraham realized, and declared it, "It is those who believe and do not confuse their beliefs with wrong – that are truly in security, for they are on right guidance." (6:82) And people will wonder then how it was not clear to our generation. It helps us a lot to think of the time we were right-guided, and the way we came to lose right-mindedness. Toynbee has something relevant here. He describes how civilization starts with the creative elite. This group has found the simple solutions, solutions that save effort and time, and they lead society with the creative tunes on their flute. During this period they can tap the best abilities of society, to mobilize people for the best objectives. But later on, the results do not match the efforts expended; there is major disproportion between the amount of effort and the result of this effort. Now there will be a decline and then collapse in civilization. People's eagerness to put in effort relaxes, and they are less willing to work hard: of course they would not be willing, for the elite no longer produce creative and fruitful solutions. And now, the flute in the hand of the elite is changed into a stick or whip for beating people into marching ahead. So he determines the time of decline and collapse as when the creative elite has been metamorphosed into a dominant and tyrannical elite. God gives us the example of the blessed effort: it is compared to a grain that produces seven stalks, each bearing a hundred grains (2:261). And we can see this in reality; how some nations put in a great deal of effort, hardly reaping enough to reward their effort; while other nations' work is rewarded with great results. God has created the world to be in the service of a human, and to employ the world you need to know the way to brining out its potential at the minimum effort. We have to take responsibility for bringing out the children's potentials. A human must be accountable for what happens to him/her, "Truly he succeeds that purifies it [his soul], and he fails that corrupts it," as the Qur'an says (91:9-10). Has not the human discovered electricity and found in it a great source of energy? Why do not we discover the great energy of having the right-guided thinking? Do not we like to get out of a life of chaos, aberration, hatred and oppression? Is not the way open to that good thinking? Indeed, there is a difference between the discovery of electricity and the discovery of right-mindedness. For we need for the latter to discover a human, the potentials of this paragon of creation, a creature that can be 'in the best of moulds ' or 'the lowest of the low' (as in the Qur'an, 95:4, and 5). It is indeed deplorable that a human's growth is frustrated and stunted; he/she has the ability to go ahead and be creative. People lived so many millenniums before agriculture, and lived many millenniums before domesticating animals, and then they had control here and there; but now they need to cross this threshold of misguidance into good guidance. We need first to understand how it settled in our minds that the right policy in dealing with a human is to use the stick. How it happened that we seem antagonistic to exploration and acquiring knowledge; how we do not feel attracted to delving into the mysteries of things; how we seem not be curious about the hidden secrets; why we do not know how we stunt the child's growth, how we stifle his/her curiosity, how we stifle the love of exploration and the unearthing of mysteries. Is it not the most splendid faculty of a human's that we kill? It is strange how we think of extracting all there is to extract from animals and plants and earth, but try hard to prevent a human being from offering what he/she can offer? Why do we impede progress? What makes us inspire the individual to believe that things cannot be changed? Why do we instill into minds that a human will always change to more chaos, destruction and mischief? It is teaching the positive and creative and going up and ahead that the Qur'an expects of us when it calls to 'rashad, right-mindedness.' [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 100 210 2010-10-15T21:45:10Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Let me remind the reader of the United Nations, where there is much talk about justice and equality, but when it comes to acts, it is still dominated by tribalism; it is still st...' wikitext text/x-wiki Let me remind the reader of the United Nations, where there is much talk about justice and equality, but when it comes to acts, it is still dominated by tribalism; it is still stronger dog eating the weaker dog – how else can we understand the Veto Right? This also must come under our detailed and careful study and analysis. Let it be remembered that tribes and extended families have been there for hundreds of millenniums, while multi-ethnic societies are much more recent, not more than ten thousand years. The change has been slow. It is necessary to follow the development in history, for when you know the past and the present, you can plan for the next stage. It is also necessary because unless we reveal the facts, those who have big claims will go on behaving the way they like with impunity and shamelessness. People have the law that is stated and written down; and they have another law that children absorb from their environment. But with our modern tools we can bring that under study and reveal the facts. There is something like the emotional language that the baby receives from its parents and its family even before learning to talk, and many subconscious attitudes and concepts are deeply implanted in its mind even before it can speak. It will learn to distinguish between an angry look and a loving look, a tender tone and an angry tone. What its community imparts to it during those two or three years, and during the few years before he/she can read and write is a condensed version of culture, built up through thousands of years. By this time a child will have learnt all the sacred things which he/she must flare up if violated; and what makes his/her parents and people around him/her mad. He/she complies with all that because he/she needs to win acceptance. As the child understands the language, he/she understands something else: that what people say can be at variance with, can completely contradict, what their behavior indicates. Much of this perception is unconscious. He/she will learn to sanctify certain things with words, not with deeds. But this discrepancy creates a lot of misery for people. The child learns in our society that the main thing for his/her success is learning maneuvers and dodging, to say what he/she does not mean, and to have the skill to hide his/her intentions; lying becomes the basis for success. He/she often believes that those who keep their word are naïve people. Let us not turn our backs to these discussions. It is not life that is too complicated, but it is we who make it complicated. I assume that I have made some holes in this wall. A new science is beginning to take form, though it cannot yet stand on its feet: the science of changing the contents of minds. I can think of it as medicine before germs were discovered. Was not the discovery of germs a turning point in medicine? Think how different medicine has become after germs were discovered! Now the world of ideas and concepts and attitudes is not so unlike that of the body; there is definite affinity between the two domains, both in composition and in diseases. I know how complex things seem, but they are not so beyond the reach of humans. It is possible to bring the inside of the human being under our notice and control. The cultural diseases that are transmitted to individuals can be analyzed and controlled. But it is a very new domain, and our skills are quite unequal to the massive challenges. If you wish to see an elimination of injustice and hypocrisy, then the first principle is to believe that, in the same way that stars and planets have their most accurate laws, human behavior has its very accurate laws. The Qur'an says about that, "Not your desires, nor those of the People of the book [nor of course any other group] can prevail: whoever works evil, will be requited accordingly. Nor will he find, besides Allah, any protector or helper." (4:123) The main psychological trouble we are dealing with here is that a human disdains to have the laws that apply to others apply to him/her; or, in other words, a human believes that he/she has privileges that others do not have. It would be a good test that one examines his own mind to see how far he accepts the principle of equality. It takes a daring heart to accept equality with others. And maybe no one will accept it unconditionally. To accept this principle is to accept it even when the other refuses it. That is how the principle is laid down and established. No matter what faith or conviction the other holds, he has the right to claim equality. When I protect the other's right, I am eligible to the same right. I May find some individuals who accept this principle, but will a community accept it? Will an entire society decide to stand for justice among all groups and classes? This must be our target. In this case you will be more worried for your society's transgressing against others than for others' transgressing against your society. It would be rather easy when one is weak and oppressed to accept and believe in equality and justice and eliminating privileges; but what about when one is strong, rich, and dominant? All previous societies came to perdition, and their mistake was the same – pride. The only exception is Jonah's people. It is important to remember that it is not impossible to realize the state of curbing arrogance and pride, but we seem to be still in the crawling stage in the domain of having the necessary skill to bring about this state. Muslims should not feel that they are privileged to be the dominant party, especially as for many centuries they have been living without good sense "al-rushd in Qur'anic diction;" they practice arrogance in the same way as other societies do. But, it is time we awoke. The perdition of many peoples before us should awaken us, and what happened in Europe should awaken us. At least they overcame arrogance among themselves. I do realize that for some time our intellect will not be working optimally; it will not be an easy task to detect the link between causes and effects, and to reap the results of past experiences. But history is waiting for us. It heartens us to review its events, for in it we have one of the richest sources of knowledge. No wonder God grants it that superior place. When people lose hope, their best salvation is to turn to history. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 79 189 2010-10-15T21:14:38Z Admin 1 Created page with 'The contents of our minds, whatever we name them, and all the symbols and ideas we hold most dear to us – they determine what happens to us. Now what happens to people can be...' wikitext text/x-wiki The contents of our minds, whatever we name them, and all the symbols and ideas we hold most dear to us – they determine what happens to us. Now what happens to people can be equally deemed good or bad unless we examine the benefits and harm they cause. But how can we perceive that unless we study God's laws which will not change to please us or to please any other people. One of the starting points is to notice that a human may often see good what is bad and see bad what is good. It is very unlikely that a human will come to know himself/herself without comparison and contrast, exactly as we use a mirror to see our face. To begin with, one needs to be less sure of the truthfulness of what he believes to be true. It is the events of history, what happens in the real world – it is by analyzing all that that puts us right. To examine how right or wrong our ideas and thought are, our criterion is the outcome of our conduct, which is based on our ideas and thoughts. And the outcome of conduct can happen in the short-run or the long-run. Moreover, what happens to groups is governed by laws other than what happens to individuals. The life-span of groups is different from that of individuals. Indeed, some events do not show their outcome until after centuries. I sometimes ask the simple people in our village if they were in a stationary vehicle and there was another vehicle, also stationary, but in the opposite direction; and then if one of the vehicles moved, how did they know which one had moved? And they think of a post or a tree next to one of the cars, or of a third car; they tell me it is by looking at that third object that they can determine which car has moved. And I tell them the point is that when we are involved in a comparison between nations, groups, creeds, etc. we need a referential point outside the contesting groups. This may help us appreciate how badly we need history. As long we think of ourselves and our adversaries we may not be in a position to see with any justice where we stand in comparison with the other. But it is by reviewing many experiences that we acquire this ability to see with some justice. As I say this I am mindful of many modern philosophies that have reached an impasse; they feel they have hit against a solid wall, being unable to tell the difference between right and wrong, good and bad – a quite nihilistic attitude. Foucault is the glaring example here. I am also aware of many individuals who say, and they have said it often in my hearing, that history is no more than a pack of lies. They say that as they take history to be what people say about themselves. They forget for instance that the Soviet Union's history is not what it used to say about itself; its history is its outcome. And the world will come to witness what happened to it; it will explode all the falsehood for it or against it. Nor is the history of America what the Americans say about themselves; the reality about them will come out, and history will make note of the outcome of American behaviors. We have the facts about the Pharaohs, and the facts about the Umayyads, and about the Abbasids; We do know how different all their behavior is from when Abraham erected the Ka'bah, [the holy cubic structure of Mecca] together with his son Ishmael! Their deed is open to analysis, to ascertain what good they did to humankind. History is not how Nietzsche saw it, as the oldest lie! It demonstrates God's greatness, as we review how a human has fared in the world. And those who see nothing about a human but his/her trespasses are far deluded. Those who think of nothing but the mischief and the bloodshed are far too cynical. They do not see the rise and ascent. Islam deems pessimism to be equal to disbelief (See the Qur'an, 12:87). It is so since when one is despondent, he has no reason to go ahead. You will see it in his eyes. So, why should we see in a human's life nothing but the first few months when it soiled itself, and could not clean itself; a human is more than that. I am aware of the many who think of history as nonsense, but let us go ahead and see better than that. The world is really going up and ahead, and it will not halt; it will keep going and rising. It is as the Qur'an says, "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of men remains on the earth." (13:17) The facts that seem hard for us to comprehend will come to be understood more fully, with all their details and applications. It is fortunate that a new trend has emerged in historical studies like the annals studies, in which the historians realize that they need to view things in their widest scope, to extend their look as far temporally and spatially as possible. They are coming to view things nearly as well as the prophets saw them. Let us remember what Jesus Christ said. "For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes." (Luke, 6:44) He was speaking of the false prophets and the true prophets, but it is also the criterion for history. The Qur'an has something precious about this, for it describes how what happens to peoples is the result of what goes on inside their souls, and then it asserts, "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of man remains on the earth." (13:17) We have another example to ponder. Nothing is clearer than the sun; is not that so? But has not the sun been for so many centuries the object of delusion when people took it to be revolving around the earth, and not the other way round? And men were ready to die, and to send others to death, rather than accept this fact; which turned out to be most evident and obvious. The example is as glaring as the sun is glaring. It must teach us that what we seem to believe to be true beyond any shred of doubt can be false. From the sun we may now go to history and say that we often are deluded there; we often do not understand the movements of history rightly. If we remember "Let there be no compulsion in religion," (2:256) we may realize that no good can come from imposing ideas and convictions. To feel secure about your convictions, let the others be secure about their convictions, no matter how convinced you are of your own convictions. Is it not a mercy that men have come to accept that they should let others come to live next to them despite all the differences in persuasion. It is a blessing that did not exist some time ago. But, it makes sense, for when you give the other the right to live despite the difference in ideas, you expect the other to give you the same right. It is such a major change, that you can be in error, but we let you be. You have good reason then to expect that the other views you in the same way. What is inside our minds will determine our conduct, but what we think to be right will not change the facts of the world. This is as it should be, for, as the Qur'an says, "If the Truth had been in accord with their desires, truly the heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, would have been in confusion." (23:71) People still hold that it is the politicians who shape the life of societies through the edicts that they issue. But it is the same as when men were so sure that the sun revolved round the earth. However, there is a difference between the two situations: Whereas the sun and the stars are not influenced by what we think about them, the politicians are happy or unhappy for what we think of them. They will also abandon a certain policy in response to change in their nation's attitudes and ideas. This is important in understanding the law of history and how it progresses. It is vital to perceive how the nations can really direct their politician by merely changing their expectations. It is an entirely different world, that of dealing with things in the way of Adam's son. Conflict that revolves on the axis of persuasion is very unlike that which revolves on coercion. The point is how to get to the right-guided kind of life. It is ever more tempting to condemn the other and to absolve oneself; while the Qur'an's way is to look inside, to act on the principle that we change what belongs to us, our ways of thinking, our norms, our attitudes, and God will change our condition. It must be fully realized that if in dealing with the world we fail in any endeavor, it is because we do not know enough to have control. Let it be a quite settled fact in our mind that the problem is not having acquired the abilities to solve the problem we confront and not that it is unsolvable. There is a basis for this in our religious faith: we have to realize that God did not just create the world and that is all. The act of creation is a process that continues until now, and will continue in the future. This links to the principle mentioned above, that "the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of man remains on the earth;" (13:17) that what is good and right will stay, and what is froth and useless will disappear. This fact may be noticed in the Qur'an, but may also be noticed if you walk around and observe how creation was started and has progressed. Remember that there was a time when humans ate human flesh (and a small residue of humankind may still do!) Unless we fully realize how we were in past history, we will not appreciate where we have got, and what the possibilities for the future are. Do you appreciate how many studies we need in this direction to keep up our growth, and to ensure that we do not regress and ruin what has been accomplished. Men have given great attention to physical health, and have started to give some attention to mental health. Do not believe the claim that the world is getting worse all the time, even when the advocates of such claim support it with certain traditions of the Prophet, peace be upon him, which are very selectively chosen (and some are not authentic) to support a point. It is unfortunate that our cultural atmosphere is so saturated with despondent notions, among the lower echelons of society as well as among the highest echelons! It is a mistake to keep throwing words in that direction without hesitation. How can one work with any earnestness if one has no hope in a brighter future! The Qur'an teaches otherwise, "anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, shall see it! And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it;" (99:7), and "if any think that Allah will not help him in this world and Hereafter, let him stretch out a rope to the ceiling and cut himself off: then let him see whether his plan will remove that which enrages him!" (22:15) It is to be noted in this last verse that victory is promised in this world. I have devoted my life to revealing this new world, the rightly-guided world. I have well learned my lesson from Iqbal, the great poet, who imagines himself to be acting for bringing into being that world which he envisions in his dream. He sees himself to be drawing his energy from the words of adhan (the call to prayer) which invigorates him to build up that world which he envisions. One point noticed by Iqbal is that the Qur'an was for many centuries viewed through the prism of the old paradigm of history, as a series of wonders and miracles, while the Qur'an itself was a harbinger of a new age when humankind would deal with life not on the basis of wonders and marvels, but on the basis of laws. Is it not a major enlightenment perceived by this giant among thinkers? The way of miracles and wonders is the way of dark mysteries, and the way of laws is the way of science and light. And any researcher can see that we are still governed by thinking on the basis of wonders, very often including our brightest minds, and even the secularists! And you see how when we like a politician we attribute some miraculous gifts to him, and when we dislike him we find him to be somehow of Jewish extraction! A virus can afflict the body with serious disease, so how many mental viruses do we have? How long will it take us to accept the way of Adam's son, when he proved to be an honor to the species of humankind, an honor to Adam who was taught, "the nature of [and naming of] all things." (2: 31) It is more knowledge that can bring us again to the way of right-guided life, and the establishment of righteous life. But for this to happen, we need to give up glorifying ignorance and dreading knowledge. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 88 198 2010-10-15T21:34:08Z Admin 1 Created page with 'We speak of the ignorant young men who alarm the world with explosions here and there, and of the world leaders who precipitate the world into terrible wars. But we have to turn ...' wikitext text/x-wiki We speak of the ignorant young men who alarm the world with explosions here and there, and of the world leaders who precipitate the world into terrible wars. But we have to turn now to the intellectuals. Do they fulfill what is due on them, by pointing out the right way, or do they still find their satisfaction in fawning on the powerful men? If the latter, then they put the immediate gratification of desires before the long term gratification; when the Lord says in the Qur'an, "Nay, you men! But you love the fleeting life, and leave alone the Hereafter." (75:20-21); and "they love the fleeting life, and put away behind them a Day that will be hard;" (76: 27) in all these and similar situations we must understand "the later outcomes" to include not only the Hereafter, but the consequences in this world, too. We should not let the idea of the unseen so overwhelm us not to let us consider the long-term consequences of deeds, not only in history, but in the Qur'an, too. I may mention in this connection that while some philosophers and clerics condemned imperialism on ethical account, Malek Bennabi quotes a quite different criticism leveled by some economists, who asserted that the same profits that the colonizers reaped through piracy and plunder could be obtained and much more at much less costs, in a human sense, in deals in which all parties would be winners. I feel that I keep beating about the bush, since the ideas I am dabbing in are not yet elaborate enough in my hands, and so do not come out smoothly and convincingly. They need to be developed much further to be of real use to people. I hope that some of the brighter Muslims would think of Moses and Pharaoh, and their story as mentioned time and time again in the Qur'an. But let me pass on to some analysis of the life of Abu Dhar, in the same way as I commented on Bilal. I like to think of the Prophet's, peace be upon him, saying of Abu Dhar that he lives by himself, dies by himself, and is resurrected by himself. (Reported by al-Hakem, who rated it as 'authentic'; while al-Dhahabi commented that a name in the link of reporters was glossed over.) It is not right that Abu Dhar should be forgotten in the folds of history. It is significant, too, how a human like this is forgotten; it is worthwhile to consider what might bring him back to recognition. It will be seen then why so many positions appear to be worthless while Abu Dhar's regains its well-deserved honorable place. He learned well the lessons of the Prophet and the lessons of history. But as I said above, we have in the sun a great sign, how we see it daily, all of us, but then we can be badly deluded about it – for how long did men asserted that it was the sun that revolved round the earth, and then all their assertions were shown to be misguided. We have every reason to doubt our knowledge and understanding. And this so important, as all our behavior stems from our understanding, conscious or unconscious. That we are sure of what we believe is no evidence that it is right. It can be, and very often is, entirely wrong. The proof for what we hold to be true does not lie inside the mind. It is not so about what we hold to be true about the sun and the moon, and it is not so about the Prophet, peace be upon him. Indeed, if what people insist that what is in their minds is true were so, the world would be ruined. This is something we find in the Qur'an, "If the Truth had been in accord with their desires, truly the heavens and the earth, and all beings therein would have been in confusion." (23:71) Galileo was right not because he believed he was so, but because there was evidence out there that what he claimed was true. That is why I say that what all men hold to be true is not true, and what the prophets asserted to be true is really so. In the same way as we long insisted that what is in our minds about the sun and moon was true was disproved, so I insist that what we hold to be true about the prophets and the books they taught is not true. Let us just accept that neither what I claim to be true is so just because I am so sure it is, nor is what the other claims to be true is so just because he is so sure it is so. It is about this that the Qur'an says, "certain it is that either we or you are on right guidance or in manifest error." (34:24) The proof for truth is quite something else: it is in the consequences of what we claim to be true, when we act upon it. This shift in the accepted evidence from what is in the mind to the reality outside the mind is a most significant one. This is the kind of change that we mean when we say that by changing what is in our minds we may be sure that God will change our condition. This shift does not prove that we can change the law, but that the law is proved once again to hold. The Qur'an says about that "no change will you find in Allah's way of dealings; no turning off will you find in Allah's way of dealings." (35:43). Once we understand the law, we can put it to use, and the evidence that we understand rightly is that what we claimed to be true is working. We also should add that no understanding is final. You may wish to see what the Qur'an says about all this. Here is an example. "Until when We seize in punishment those of them who received the good things of this world, behold, they will groan in supplication! It will be said: 'Do not groan in supplication this day: for you shall certainly not be helped by Us. My Signs used to be rehearsed to you, but you used to turn back on your heels – in arrogance: talking nonsense about the Qur'an, like one telling fables by night.' Do they not ponder over the Word of Allah, or has anything new come to them that did not come to their fathers of old? Or do they not recognize their Messenger, that they deny him? Or do they say, 'he is one possessed'? Nay, he has brought them to the Truth, but most of them hate the truth. If the Truth had been in accord with their desires, truly the heavens and the earth, and all beings therein would have been in confusion and corruption! Nay, We have sent them their admonition, but they turn away from their admonition." (23:64-71) Do not you see that the Muslims want to be devout and pious, but would not accept to ponder on such directives about the way out at the time of violent uproar and general chaos, even from their Prophet? That they are so sure they are good Muslims is no proof that they follow in his steps. Muslims still take what their forefathers accepted to be true to be nearer the truth than what the Prophet taught. And it does not avail Muslims to attribute their disasters to the West or any other party. History has the means to punish us for our failings; that is the right kind of teacher; the teacher that can put people right. And that is why the Qur'an keeps reiterating the injunction to look well at history; as for instance in 89:6-14. This is the criterion for behavior, how it is judged to be true by history. But of course history's reminding can be quite severe and stern. It reminds with casualties and losses and humiliation. All that to awaken people, and to remind them that what they hold as sacred can very well be the opposite. All superstitions and delusions will be shaken with the lashes of disaster that they engender. And no matter how vehemently we cite verses of the Qur'an, traditions of the Prophet, or sayings of the greatest scholars that what we do is the right thing to do, history may have a different verdict, and will show its verdict relentlessly in the way it deals with us. It will show that delusions are delusions. Its power is indeed invincible. But have the lashes inflicted on us been enough for us to awake? "But how terrible was My penalty and My warning!" (54:16) Do we yet find evidence enough in what the prophets have taught? [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 96 206 2010-10-15T21:40:39Z Admin 1 Created page with 'We may try to twist words this way and this way, but God's law will not change at all; we may give a new name to the same old concepts, but misguidance will not be guidance for t...' wikitext text/x-wiki We may try to twist words this way and this way, but God's law will not change at all; we may give a new name to the same old concepts, but misguidance will not be guidance for the sake of Muslims. Nor will the Europeans' good sense be folly to please us. Al-Ghazali did think, a thousand years before Saussure, Serle, Chomsky, Heidegger and Nietzsche, along this line, when he said, "Anyone who seeks to draw sense from words will be lost and will end into perdition; he will be like one who seeks to go West, while moving towards the East; but to comprehend concepts first, and then seek the right words for them – that is good guidance." Words can indicate the required sense, and can indicate its opposite; anyone who thinks that words contain the sense that is required will be far from truth. It may help to consider how skills like swimming are not to be obtained from any writing, no matter how eloquent. So now it maybe easier to consider how the Muslims and other monotheistic religionists go through a time when they do not benefit from what is in their revealed books. To give the written words their significance, God commands us to move about and observe with open minds what is in the earth. I say this with reference to the European Union, which was created on the basis of the calculation of profits and losses; statistics and calculations were absolutely the basis for establishing it. You may wish to see the other side, too. So think of the Soviet Union. It broke up when it failed to approach its problems soberly. It happens that people come to a point when they no longer benefit by their eyes, ears, or minds, as the Qur'an says, (6:7; and 15:13-15). The Soviet Union believed in compulsion and collapsed, in the same way that Muslims at a certain stage believed in compulsion and collapsed. Hatred took the place of love and confidence, and the Soviet Union no longer cared even for life or wealth; they no longer calculated the profits and losses. This especially happens to nations that have not been in the habit of taking part in taking decisions. And when people are dominated by hatred their faculty of analyzing things comes to a standstill. Of course, there were some wise people who tried to speak sense, but it was not possible to regain the confidence, and history decided that its verdict was disintegration. I like to use the principle of 'two readings of the Qur'an' in discussing the people of Jonah (Yunus in Arabic). And when I cite the Qur'an, I do that not because it is the Qur'an, but because it expresses what we need to express on the basis of logic and reasoning; or, in modern terms, it discusses things in historical and not metaphysical terms. Let me add, too, that the Qur'an uses the word 'hereafter' in the sense of the Last Day, but also in connection with a later stage in this earthly life; as it says of a certain people, "For them there is nothing but disgrace in this world, and in the world to come, an exceeding torment;" (2: 114) and of another group, "We might give them a taste of a Penalty of humiliation in this Life; but the Penalty of the Hereafter will be more humiliating still." (41:16-18) By disregarding the rewards and retribution in this world, as handled by the Qur'an, we waste a very major point in it. On the other hand, reading the Qur'an with reference to this world, revives it and revitalizes it. And if you wonder why I keep referring to the Qur'an, then remember that while my words have little effect, and on a small number of people, the Qur'an is the great book of Muslims. They will not rise without the Qur'an, and will only rise by the Qur'an. But the great thing to do is to make Muslims interpret the Qur'an with reference to the consequences of behaviors. As long as the Qur'an is used to refer to the Last Day alone, then it is not referred to to solve the problems of this world. I admire Ibn Taymiah when he said to the philosophers he argued with that he did not quote the Qur'an to silence them, but for the sense and logic in its words. So it is not enough that we assert that the Qur'an is full of miracles; for it is the right of those who we encounter to say do not quote the Qur'an. To them also the Qur'an is not related to the cause-effect life in this world. As my concern is what befalls us in this world, like the two Gulf wars, I use the Qur'an as pertaining to this life. It was Muhammad Arkoun who asserted that Muslims needed a new theology, an idea that he repeats often in his books. He felt somehow, though it remained vague to him, that Muslims needed to understand the Oneness of God in a new light, that is, to learn to read the Qur'an the two readings. And yet, as I quoted him above, he maintains in another place that according to the Qur'an history is not made by people, but by God. It is such idea that prevents the two readings of the Qur'an to be commonly employed. Do some people feel reactant at the mention of Ibn Taymiah or Arkoun? Well, their names change nothing of the facts. A fruitful idea is good, apart from the person who utters it. Now let us go the Qur'an about the people of Jonah: " If you were in doubt as to what We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Book before you: the Truth has indeed come to you from your Lord: so be in no wise of those in doubt. Nor be of those who reject the signs of Allah, or you shall be of those who perish, those against whom the word of thy Lord has been verified would not believe – even if every Sign was brought to them – until they see for themselves the penalty grievous. Why was there not a single township (among those We warned), which believed – so its faith should have profited it – except the people of Jonah? When they believed, We removed from them the penalty of ignominy in the life of the present, and permitted them to enjoy (their life) for a while. If it had been your Lord's will, they would all have believed – all who are on earth! Will you then compel mankind, against their will, to believe! No soul can believe, except by the will of Allah, and He will place doubt (or obscurity) on those who will not understand. Say: 'Behold all that is in the heavens and on earth'; but neither Signs nor Warners profit those who believe not. Do they then expect (any thing) but (what happened in) the days of the men who passed away before them? Say: 'Wait you then: for I, too, will wait with you.' In the end We deliver Our apostles and those who believe: Thus is it fitting on Our part that We should deliver those who believe!" (10:94-103). I take up such stories and give them their due importance since I would not accept the nihilism of modern philosophers, including Derrida, for they take the world to be an absurdity; and even Skinner, who I admire and from whom I benefited a lot, takes the same position. He does not even deny that a human's movement is like that of a missile. He does realize that man is the product of his material milieu, but seems not to notice that that milieu is never stationary. Nor does he notice that some individuals just would not be missiles. Indeed, Skinner himself worked hard to change attitudes and concepts, even under the oxygen tent near the end of his life – he did not give up because life had a purpose, and he was not a missile. He was once asked about the most remarkable appreciation he met with, and he said it was from a circus trainer, who told him that they adopted his method with animals – they no longer punished animals to control their behavior, but rather rewarded them only for their right behavior, the famous positive reinforcement of Skinner. And it worked better than punishments. It was heartening to see that teaching can work better with rewards for positive behaviors. And I would say to Skinner, "It is not important what I feel or you feel about things. The world goes along its track, caring nothing for our feelings. But if your behavior or mine has positive results, then it will stay, and occupy its place in existence." It is such a glaring fact, that those who deny it will only have to pay dearly for their denial. So, there is a reference other than you or me, Skinner. Roger Garodi did better in the matter of the meaning of things. All his effort was directed at confirming the teleology of the world, that things do not just happen haphazardly. I say all this because the first verse in the story of Jonah's people reads, " If you were in doubt as to what We have revealed to you, then ask those who have been reading the Book before you; " (10:94) which permits doubt, and even urges one to have doubt; for this is the remedy against nihilism. The panacea against nihilism is to look around, and to see and hear what those before us have said. And even if you say I will go to the Qur'an, you will find it will refer you back to the earth and its events, and to those who have studied the events on the earth. But you need to believe that things are moving, and moving upwards. Things started with animals, and then rose to a human, and a human was given a share in shaping his/her future, and to save time by accelerating creation. This is our panacea against nihilism and absurdity. And it is very healthy after that to be skeptical, very skeptical, which may lead us to sort out what is right and mature behavior, and what is misguided and erroneous behavior. And we cannot afford to waste time. Why should we ignore all this and go doggedly wasting our fortune and life, just clinging to old trodden ways. God has not left men without guidance. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 85 195 2010-10-15T21:31:11Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Come Bilal, and tell people about you! Can we learn how you did what you did? Are you a miracle? What got into you as soon as you believed in Islam? What induced you to make that...' wikitext text/x-wiki Come Bilal, and tell people about you! Can we learn how you did what you did? Are you a miracle? What got into you as soon as you believed in Islam? What induced you to make that difficult decision? And you just a slave! I feel the need to delve and dive to know you. To bring your conduct to life is a great revival of the dead. To learn your way is to give up the idols, and to get over terror, and to inspire a feeling of security into hearts. But to do that, we need to transfer Bilal from the domain of legend to the domain of reality and concrete existence. We need to understand how in Bilal was epitomized the way of the prophets. O Bilal, you seem to be a very phantom who is encased in mystery; quite an enigma; for we do not seem to have access to your treasure. But no, Bilal is within our reach; he is not impossible. We only need to understand him. The blacks need to learn from this black man, and those who yearn to be free need to learn from this slave (when he was a slave), and the most brilliant economists need to learn from this economist what is gain and what is loss; for Bilal teaches us how to train a human and completely transform him/her with the minimum of waste. But do people understand the power in you? Did Bilal happen by coincidence like the first fire that happened in nature? And if something happens naturally like the first fire or the natural electricity, can we not produce it deliberately and according to plan? This will help us take Bilal's experience to be not a miraculous event, but something that may come to be reproduced. Humankind has discovered the secret of fire, and has kindled it at will. And so can they acquire and train others to acquire traits deliberately and follow well-known steps once they learn how to develop those traits. And when we succeed with some we succeed with many, for mental good health is contracted, not the same as with physical good health. When some individuals stand for truth, falsehood has no way of withstanding them; it is God's will that once truth advances, falsehood retreats, "And say: 'Truth has now arrived, and Falsehood perished: for Falsehood is by its nature bound to perish.'" (17:81) It is unfortunate that some people would think that falsehood is ordained to vanquish truth. And it makes a world of difference to believe that truth will be victorious or that falsehood will be victorious. We have to be, as believers, optimistic rather than pessimistic, for the Qur'an tells us, "truly no one despairs of Allah's soothing Mercy, except those who have no faith;" (12:87), and "And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord, but such as go astray?" (15:56) The world is designed so that it advances towards what is better. And it is not enough to announce that you believe in this, unless you see its truth in history. People whose vision will not extend beyond the short range of the present moment will be pessimistic; while those who view history in its totality will see the creativity and development. So look well into history; peer well, and see how the world gets broader and more extensive. Such reflection gives hope, and not hope that is engendered of fancy, but of reality; creation is not a one-time act, but a continuous process. For those who are hopeful, what is closed will open; and for those who are hopeless, what is open will appear closed. To go ahead on the basis of knowing the laws of the history, one progresses serenely, but surely and deliberately; but to move without knowing history, one acts impulsively and precipitately. Indeed, all my effort is an attempt to make Islamic work proceed knowingly, to have vision and insight while proceeding. What I am contending is that to move in this way will cost less, and will produce more. But it will not be an easy option at the beginning. My mentors have been Muhammad Iqbal and Malik Bennabi. Is it madness what I am announcing? No matter; let me be charged with what many prophets were charged, for many prophets were charged with madness. But they proved to offer mercy, not destruction. They also proved to save effort and time, and to raise the value for cost ratio. And the whole universe is based on the law of mercy; the more we expand our knowledge, the more merciful we become. God Himself is the Merciful and Compassionate; and His Mercy has priority over wrath. So why should we see torture in the world, and not mercy? Why not follow the way of the prophets and see the possibility of mercy rather than suffering? Do not you see that the animals' life is basically characterized by mercy? Do not you see the mothers? And when the prophets were sent by the Lord, they were sent to spread mercy, and to lift the burdens and fetters. They sought a society in which all are winners and no one is a loser. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 78 188 2010-10-15T21:13:14Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Nations and cultural systems are grossly deluded and barred from seeing the truth about themselves. And so they need so many examples about themselves and about others to see how...' wikitext text/x-wiki Nations and cultural systems are grossly deluded and barred from seeing the truth about themselves. And so they need so many examples about themselves and about others to see how they fare in comparison with other nations and cultures. One telling example must be Satan: he was the first to boast that he was created from fire, while Adam was created from a baser material, mud. So, it would be useful for people to reflect that pride about one's race or ethnic group or culture is walking in the steps of Satan. Therefore, those who raised themselves and claimed to be "sons of God, and His beloved ," were told, as the same verse continues, "Why then does He punish you for your sins? Nay, you are but men – of the men He has created." (5:18) So, Muslims who claim to be privileged with God, would do well to reflect how painful a scourge God has inflicted on them over the recent history: this must awaken them to the fact that they are mere men, and that the laws that apply to others apply to them. Do not Muslims still claim that no followers of any religion will be admitted into Paradise but they, the Muslims? Do not they still claim that all the ideas and deeds of other nation are of no value at all? Do not we mock those who issued indulgences, guarantees that warrant Paradise to certain individuals? So why assume that we may claim to be favorites with God? We have a big claim that God is on our side, although He shows us again and again that his laws apply to all humans alike, "No change will you find in Allah's way of dealing: no turning off will you find in Allah's way of dealing." (35:43) No matter how long we cling to our deluded notions, history will not give up and change its laws: it is rather we who will change our attitudes, with or without more suffering. People can open their eyes and ears and so understand. But if they refuse, then the increasingly higher price of ignorance will force them to understand. So, it is either we study past history to understand, or wait until more catastrophes and suffering make us understand. And if our generation is already too blinded to see light, there will be in the next generation or the one next to it enough light. To save people from that great toll of ignorance, the Qur'an is full of exhortation to explore history and move around to see and hear. (e.g. 25:38-45) It may be useful to notice that an important ruling like that of inheritance is not mentioned more than two or three times in the Qur'an; but how often in contrast it admonishes us to walk around and see the outcome of past people's conduct, and in one location it comments: "To each one We set forth parables and examples, and each one We broke to utter annihilation for their sins." (25:39) See how often the history of Pharaoh and Moses is mentioned in the Qur'an, in great detail, in some detail, or in brief. It is worth our while to probe what happened to our minds that we can be impervious to the historical narration of the Qur'an despite its significance. We vitally need to bring life back to events. Why should we go on paying higher and higher toll for our ignorance? The law in the Qur'an concerning what happens to peoples and their responsibility is, "Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change what is in their souls," (13:11) which shows that what is inside the minds determines what events come over peoples. And what is in the minds is men's responsibility. It was Ibn Khaldoun who taught us that history, "on the surface is no more than events that happen to nations; but looking deeply, we find behind the visible events causes and effects; we find guidelines that tell us why something happens." People used to attribute what happened to them to their gods, but the gods are no more than what goes on inside the minds. Therefore, when the unbelievers reacted to the Prophet's call by saying, as the Qur'an reports, "When they see you, they treat you no otherwise than in mockery: 'Is this the one whom Allah has sent as a Messenger? He indeed would well-nigh have misled us from our gods, had it not been that we were constant to them!'" (25:41-42) you could say that they were talking not about their gods but about their mental habits and attitudes. And we can say about ourselves that when we raise God most highly, we also raise our ideas very highly, and hold to them most tenaciously. What you hold about your god, and about history, will guide you, rightly or wrongly. It is not enough to say, 'I believe in the One True God,' if what is inside your mind about life and the world is not so unlike what the idol-worshipper holds. If the others, those who explicitly declare that they strive for success in this world act in accordance with God's laws "the sunan in Qur'an's terms", while we do not, then they will attain their quests while we do not, no matter how we boast that we believe in God and His revealed message. And indeed, the behavior that ensures your salvation (as community) in the Hereafter is itself what ensures your salvation in this world. [[Category: Be Like Adam's Son]] 0 43 95 90 2009-05-31T07:08:42Z Admin 1 /* DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI */ wikitext text/x-wiki ==DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI== :::::[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d2/ReahTagieer.pdf DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI] 16 MB. '''"O ki, rüzgarları, rahmetinin müdeleyictsl olarak gönderendir. O rüzgarlar, ağır bulutlan yüklenince, onu ola bir memlekete sevk ederiz. Orada suyu indirir ve onunla türlü türlü meyveler çıkarırız" (Araf: 7/57)''' Ben gerçekten esmeye başladığını görüyorum. Bu esintiler, uykudakilerin göz kapaklarını okşamakta, onları uzun süren derin uykularından uyandıracak kasırgalardan önce hafifçe sallamaktadır. Ve 'hayyealclfelâh' çağrılan, şeytanın insana yüklediği ağırlıkları kaldırmakta ve onun hilelerini bozmaktadır. "Muhakkak ki şeytanın hileleri pek zayıftır." (Nisa:4/76) Sorunların hacmi büyük, geri kalmışlığın sınırlan ise geniştir. Yarıklar derin, karanlıklar koyudur. Gelenekler yığını da bizde kamburlar oluşturacak derecede ağırdır. İşte bu sohbetlerin sahibi, Kur'ânt manada değişim rüzgarlarının, buruk İslâm alemi üzerine esmeye başladığı anda, ümmetin, uzun zamandır yitirdiği, yitirmcsiyle kimliğini kaybettiği değerlerini tekrar kazanacağına ve kendini inkara götüren sorunlardan kurtulacağına inanmaktadır. İslâm alemi bu sorunlardan kurtulduğu vakit, Özüne dönecek ve esaret zincirlerini kırıp yeniden canlanacaktır. İnsanlık da muhtaç olduğu zatın gelişine sevinecektir... 90 89 2009-05-11T03:56:44Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki ==DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI== :::::[http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:ReahTagieer.pdf DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI] 16 MB. '''"O ki, rüzgarları, rahmetinin müdeleyictsl olarak gönderendir. O rüzgarlar, ağır bulutlan yüklenince, onu ola bir memlekete sevk ederiz. Orada suyu indirir ve onunla türlü türlü meyveler çıkarırız" (Araf: 7/57)''' Ben gerçekten esmeye başladığını görüyorum. Bu esintiler, uykudakilerin göz kapaklarını okşamakta, onları uzun süren derin uykularından uyandıracak kasırgalardan önce hafifçe sallamaktadır. Ve 'hayyealclfelâh' çağrılan, şeytanın insana yüklediği ağırlıkları kaldırmakta ve onun hilelerini bozmaktadır. "Muhakkak ki şeytanın hileleri pek zayıftır." (Nisa:4/76) Sorunların hacmi büyük, geri kalmışlığın sınırlan ise geniştir. Yarıklar derin, karanlıklar koyudur. Gelenekler yığını da bizde kamburlar oluşturacak derecede ağırdır. İşte bu sohbetlerin sahibi, Kur'ânt manada değişim rüzgarlarının, buruk İslâm alemi üzerine esmeye başladığı anda, ümmetin, uzun zamandır yitirdiği, yitirmcsiyle kimliğini kaybettiği değerlerini tekrar kazanacağına ve kendini inkara götüren sorunlardan kurtulacağına inanmaktadır. İslâm alemi bu sorunlardan kurtulduğu vakit, Özüne dönecek ve esaret zincirlerini kırıp yeniden canlanacaktır. İnsanlık da muhtaç olduğu zatın gelişine sevinecektir... 89 2009-05-11T03:55:44Z Admin 1 Created page with '==DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI== [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:ReahTagieer.pdf DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI] 16 MB. "O ki, rüzgarları, rahmetinin müdel...' wikitext text/x-wiki ==DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI== [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:ReahTagieer.pdf DEĞİŞİM RÜZGARLARI] 16 MB. "O ki, rüzgarları, rahmetinin müdeleyictsl olarak gönderendir. O rüzgarlar, ağır bulutlan yüklenince, onu ola bir memlekete sevk ederiz. Orada suyu indirir ve onunla türlü türlü meyveler çıkarırız" (Araf: 7/57) Ben gerçekten esmeye başladığını görüyorum. Bu esintiler, uykudakilerin göz kapaklarını okşamakta, onları uzun süren derin uykularından uyandıracak kasırgalardan önce hafifçe sallamaktadır. Ve 'hayyealclfelâh' çağrılan, şeytanın insana yüklediği ağırlıkları kaldırmakta ve onun hilelerini bozmaktadır. "Muhakkak ki şeytanın hileleri pek zayıftır." (Nisa:4/76) Sorunların hacmi büyük, geri kalmışlığın sınırlan ise geniştir. Yarıklar derin, karanlıklar koyudur. Gelenekler yığını da bizde kamburlar oluşturacak derecede ağırdır. İşte bu sohbetlerin sahibi, Kur'ânt manada değişim rüzgarlarının, buruk İslâm alemi üzerine esmeye başladığı anda, ümmetin, uzun zamandır yitirdiği, yitirmcsiyle kimliğini kaybettiği değerlerini tekrar kazanacağına ve kendini inkara götüren sorunlardan kurtulacağına inanmaktadır. İslâm alemi bu sorunlardan kurtulduğu vakit, Özüne dönecek ve esaret zincirlerini kırıp yeniden canlanacaktır. İnsanlık da muhtaç olduğu zatın gelişine sevinecektir. 0 59 150 2009-08-23T11:14:43Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Jawdat Sa'eed Answers Twelve Questions Posed by the Journal "Current Islamic Issues" '''11/1418 A.H.''' ''''April, 1998 A.D.''' ==The Questions:== Esteemed Sheikh, Jawdat Sa'e...' wikitext text/x-wiki Jawdat Sa'eed Answers Twelve Questions Posed by the Journal "Current Islamic Issues" '''11/1418 A.H.''' ''''April, 1998 A.D.''' ==The Questions:== Esteemed Sheikh, Jawdat Sa'eed, may Allah preserve him, Peace be to you, Our journal, "Current Islamic Issues", proposes to devote its next issue to current Arabic thought, introducing some of the most salient trends and leading figures of today's Arabic cultural scene. As you are one of the distinguished cultural Arab figures, we would be grateful if you answered the following questions: * [[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress|1. What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress?]] *[[3: The main features Jawdat's project|2. What are the constituent elements, and main thinkers, that mainly contributed to your intellectual experience?]] *[[3: The main features Jawdat's project| 3. What are the main features of your project "The laws of changing individuals and societies?" Do you consider that project an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilizations?"]] *[[4: Two sources of knowledge|4. In your writings, you stress that there are two sources of knowledge: the Qur'an, and human history – that a man who ignores human history cannot think properly. So how would you place human history in relation to the Qur'an? And how can world history be so indispensable in approaching the Qur'an?]] *[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad|5. Jawdat Sa'eed is a great promoter of the repudiation of violence. He goes so far as to call for the discarding of the sword and all weaponry; he likens the purchase of arms to the purchase of idols. His doctrine of the 'Way of Adam's Son' is inseparable from Jawdat Sa'eed's name, since that way was put forth in the title of his first book. So the question would naturally arise: Is Jawdat Sa'eed upholding the annulment of 'jihad', an established Islamic obligation, even when all its conditions are met? Is he calling for disobeying Allah's command, "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power," (the Qur'an, 8:60)? Is it right in his point of view that we be passive spectators while the Zionist enemy is amassing its huge arsenal? Is he calling for terminating the resistance movements in the face of destructive powers?]] *[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project|6. Jawdat Sa'eed confers on Muhammad Iqbal's thought such a distinguished status. So what is so original about Iqbal? In what way has he laid the bases for a new system? What is his impact on current Arab thought?]] *[[7: The challenge of globalization|7. Globalization seems to be a new mask worn by the Western civilization. So how can we guard our cultural identity? How can we preserve our independent character so that we do not get dissolved in this new call to globalization?]] *[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility|8. One main tenet in your writings is a call to free ourselves of father veneration, raising our ancestors above their human place and accepting their way as infallible. You assert that this idealization of ancestors blocks the way to any new approach to things. The question here is: are you calling to dissociation with the heritage of the past? If so, do you not agree that any advance in dissociation with the past is illusive, without any roots?]] *[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?|9. Do you agree with the now prevalent assumption that the Muslim mind is in a crisis? If that is so, how extensive is this phenomenon, and what are its manifestations? How can we overcome this crisis?]] *[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene|10. What is your reading of the present Arab cultural scene? What books or projects do you rate as interesting and not just repetitive?]] *[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude|11. Professor Muhammad Arkoun insists that there is a need for a fresh theology for approaching Islam and religion in general, and emphasizes that this is still hardly touched upon. Arkoun mocks those who cite the Qur'an in the course of a debate – according to him, any such attempt would stir all the problems of moving from a mythical to a scientific age. So how would you rate this stance of Arkoun's?]] *[[12: Interpretation of the holy texts|12. What do you think of the modern trends concerning sacred texts [the Qur'an and the Prophet's traditions], according to which any attempt to arrive at truth through examining a text must bring up all the multiplicity of readings: in the sense that no general truth can really be gleaned from a text; that even the attempts at legislation on the basis of texts, and through analyzing texts, is bound to be elusive and illusive, no matter how ardently its adherents claim to be sincere and objective. Is not such position tantamount to assuming that the truth of the sacred text itself is relative, or even nonexistent?]] '''Abdul-Jabbar al-Rifa'ee,''' '''Editor-in-chief, Current Islamic Issues''' ==Jawdat Sa'eed's Answers== Sent in June of the same year, 1998 Thank you, Mr. Abdul-Jabbar al-Rif'ee, Editor-in-chief, Current Islamic Issues ::::The following two notes might be helpful to the reader. ::::*The first is to draw the reader's attention to the fact that the above journal is Iranian, and hence the many references to Iranian affairs in Mr. Sa'eed's answers. ::::*The other note is that those who know Mr. Sa'eed will not be surprised at his very unconventional way of replying. For instance, as he feels in the course of his answer to Question One that he has said enough about Question Two, he skips that question.] Here are now his answers: {{Current Islamic Issues}} 0 57 146 145 2009-08-23T11:00:14Z Admin 1 Redirected page to [[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[3:_The_main_features_Jawdat's_project]] 145 2009-08-23T10:58:37Z Admin 1 Redirected page to [[3: The Main Features Jawdat's Project]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[3: The Main Features Jawdat's Project]] 0 37 71 2009-05-07T16:50:46Z Admin 1 Created page with 'According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big.<ref>E. Miller, The Sun, (New York: Academic Press, 2005), 23-5.</ref> The Moon, however, is not so big.<ref>R. Smith, "Size of the...' wikitext text/x-wiki According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big.<ref>E. Miller, The Sun, (New York: Academic Press, 2005), 23-5.</ref> The Moon, however, is not so big.<ref>R. Smith, "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 46 (April 1978): 44-6.</ref> ==Notes== <references/> This is an example of multiple references to the same footnote.<ref name="multiple">Remember that when you refer to the same footnote multiple times, the text from the first reference is used.</ref> Such references are particularly useful when citing sources, if different statements come from the same source.<ref name="multiple">This text is superfluous, and won't show up anywhere. We may as well just use an empty tag.</ref> A concise way to make multiple references is to use empty ref tags, which have a slash at the end. Although this may reduce redundant work, please be aware that if a future editor removes the first reference, this will result in the loss of all references using the empty ref tags.<ref name="multiple" /> ==Notes== <references/> According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big <ref>E. Miller, The Sun, (New York: Academic Press, 2005), 23-5.</ref>. In fact, it is very big <ref group="footnotes">Take their word for it. Don't look directly at the sun!</ref>. ==Notes== <references group="footnotes"/> ==References== <references/> 0 13 20 2009-04-29T12:42:23Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} It may be more accurate to say that the problem of subjugation does not lie in the oppressors or their demeaned slaves, but in their "teachers" or "people of...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} It may be more accurate to say that the problem of subjugation does not lie in the oppressors or their demeaned slaves, but in their "teachers" or "people of knowledge." The problem does not lie in the politician; the problem lies in the intellectual, the salt of the earth, the maker of a culture with all its institutions. We should lay bare the reality that the politician is the instrument of the intellectual and not the other way around. This is such a profound shift in our intellectual paradigms that it is almost Copernican in the cosmos of ideas about power and society. Comprehension and teaching are the roles of the intellectual. And if intellectuals fail to understand and take responsibility for the duality of the world around them, we should, only blame ourselves. Prophet Muhammad (PBLTH) says, "One who encounters good should thank God. One who finds other than that should not blame but himself."1 We live in an era that witnesses an absence of true intellectuals. The problem we face is within the intellectuals and "people of knowledge." They are the resigned ones, those who do not trust what they possess. They revere the power of body rather than the true power of the intellect. They are so insecure about their knowledge that they are incapable of fertilizing people's minds with the understanding that will give them the vaccine against enslavement. Jesus referred to such guides: "Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to win one convert; and when you have succeeded you make him twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves." (Matt 23:15) But, can we disturb the comfort of so-called intellectuals who exonerate themselves by placing the blame on politicians who serve interest groups? The media, who could play a significant role in showing the problems of power, do not help either: they too absolve themselves of responsibility. Yet, when those who are responsible absolve themselves of it, they are absolving themselves of being human. Ordinary people, who do not understand social dynamics, believe what they hear from intellectuals and feel despair. The followers of religions are also waiting for a savior, but we do not need more saviors. What we need is to revive the call of prophets. It is unfortunate that our intellectuals have bewitched the world by manufacturing silence. Our intellectuals have nothing to say, because they are bereft of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Religion has become a problematic subject in modern discourse. Only those who arc ignorant about the history of the evolution of knowledge can deify and sanctify falsehood. So, for example when God was declared dead in Western thought, it was an indication that the God of the philosophers' own perceptions had actually become invalid. But even "Man" died at the hands of nihilism. The reason for the perceived death of God and humanity (or Man) is that the reality of history is absent from our judgments. We can not rely on our perceptions to decide the laws of history, nor can we live on what is being fed to us by secularists or fake religious people. Their invalid perception or ignorance of the history of knowledge has misled people and robbed them of meaning, convincing people of absurdity of the world and humanity. We are at the mercy of intellectuals who cannot distinguish Jesus from the Church or the Qur'an from the Muslims' interpretations. Jesus embodied Moses' message and the Torah but surpassed the followers of Moses2. Muhammad, too, embodied the message of Moses and the Torah, and Jesus and the Bible, but he surpassed their followers. And if there were to be a coming prophet, he or she would embody Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and their message but would surpass their followers and what they now stand for. Our modern intellectuals are incapable of being prophetic, of seeing the messages of these prophets. H.G. Wells points out intellectuals' problematic relationship to Christianity in the modern West, arguing that intellectuals, when dealing with the Bible, ensure that "the baby is thrown out with the bath water3." At least it seems that intellectuals fear that they will be dirtied with the bath water if they discuss the baby. Intellectuals dread dealing in human experiences such as compassion. When Foucault discusses love and compassion, in Madness and Civilization, he passes briefly over the writings of poets like Artaud, Holderlin, and Nerval, "who somehow escaped the `gigantic moral imprisonment' of their age and glimpsed a fundamental experience of unreason which beckons us beyond the bounds of society4." Foucault wonders whether this Otherness is the opening for a "total contestation" of Western culture. Analyzing the search for a fundamental experience outside of history, Foucault "shows that this philosophic move is characteristic of the most developed forms of modern thought and yet is bound to fail5." It is unfortunate that our intellectuals offer us such notions as "the end of history," or "clash of civilizations." They are the new custodians of the god of war. But as I have said, their nihilistic perceptions do not render the world meaningless. T'he Qur'an confirms this: "If the truth followed (had been in accord with) their desires, truly the heavens and the earth, and all beings therein would have been in confusion and corruption!" (Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 71) The Bible also warns us that this search for a human experience outside of history is bound to fail. It is this notion that is seen as destined for failure by the builders of modernity which we find in the Bible: ::'''Jesus said to them, `Have you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the main corner¬stone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful [marvelous] in our eyes.' ::'''`Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that yields the proper fruits.' '''(Matt 21:42-43) We should know that we are not at the end of history. In fact, history teaches us that theories of Doomsday proliferated in civilizations that could not adapt to the movement of history. This is why the true role of prophets was not been fulfilled in their ancient eras. Now is the time for the world to understand their message: the prophets did not come to compete in violent combat; they came to compete in goodness, in making a peaceful global society in which all humans are equal under the law. The path of monotheism, of peace, is the path toward accomplishing the will of God and the dream of prophets. The closest to the Lord are those who serve the people6, "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Matt 20:27-28) Today's intellectuals should head religious revivalism in the world and perform tasks suitable to repentance, for the world has reached the dawn of the birth of a global democracy that acknowledges the equality of all people. All of us, intellectuals included, should respond to the call of the world to enter a new history of humanity. Currently, however, this new era of history is governed by illusory ideas about freedom. The freedom of America, where I can put forth my ideas in journals such as this, is also the freedom of the Pharaoh, who claimed that his status quo was the path of guidance: "I but point out to you that which I see (myself); nor do I guide you but to the path of Right!7" According to Pharaoh, Moses should be destroyed, for he might change the people's religion and worldview, thereby spreading corruption on earth. Pharaoh presents his path, a world without equality, as the path of reform and the ideal way. In a long Qur'anic dialogue Moses and Aaron confront the Pharaoh with the warning that God will penalize those who reject Him, even though both are afraid of him8: ::'''`Verily it has been revealed to us that the penalty (awaits) those who reject and turn away.' Pharaoh responds to the message by saying, `Who then, O Moses, is the Lord of you two?' and Moses replies, `Our Lord is He who gave to each (created) thing its form (and nature), and further, gave (it) guidance.' He tells Pharaoh that the knowledge of all generations remains with the Lord. In return, Pharaoh accuses Moses of making magic9. `Therefore, concert your plan. And then assemble in (serried) ranks: He wins (all along) today who domineers.' '''(Surah 20 Ta Ha: 42-64) Moses is a prophet but he is also a type, a category of those who speak truth to power. He, like the other prophets, has come to terms with the evolution that took place when humanity entered the world of comprehension, the world of knowledge, the moment as God said, when "The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil . . . ." (Gen 3:22) The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation The Qur'an approaches the relationship between humanity and the rest of existence in an interesting scene, which evokes imagination and historical contemplation: ::'''`Behold,' your Lord said to the angels: `I will create a khalifah (vicegerent) on earth.' They said: `Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? While we do celebrate Your praises (chant gratitude) and glorify Your holy (name)?' He said: `I know what you know not.' '''(Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 30) In the story, the word "Khalifah " (Caliph or vicegerent) stands for a creature, who will be trusted to perform tasks assigned by God. In a discussion about the human project, the angels object because this creature, they claim, will spread corruption and spill blood; for them, corruption is the absence of equality, the hierarchy of superiority and inferiority, and bloodshed is the result of this corrupt relationship. God responds that He knows what they do not know in terms of this creature's abilities and potential. Another Qur'anic passage suggests that humanity has been given a place of trust, because of our ability through the nervous system to know good &om evil, to carry the covenant. "Agreement, covenant, trust, integrity, knowledge, loyalty" are the words used in the Qur'an to stress the uniqueness of the human condition and our special existential status in relation to other creatures: "We did indeed offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains but they declined to undertake it, being a&aid thereof but insan (the human being) undertook it. He was indeed oppressive and ignorant." (Surah 33 Al Ahzab: 72) This is also the same meaning we find in the book of Genesis: "The Lord God . . . said, `The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil . . . . "' (Gen 3:22) The Heavens and other creatures are incapable of distinguishing good from evil, incapable of disobedience. Only humanity has the capacity for obedience and disobedience, for humanity alone has knowledge of harms and benefits. In the dialogue between God and the angels about humanity, the angels admit their ignorance when they are faced with the new creature's capacity: ::'''And He taught Adam all the names; then he placed them before the angels, and said : `Tell Me the names of these if you are right.' They said: `Glory to You: of knowledge: we have none, save what You have taught us: in truth it is You who are perfect in knowledge and wisdom.' He said: `O Adam! Tell them their names.' When he had told them, God said: `Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what you reveal and what you conceal?' '''(Surah 2 A1 Baqara: 33) It is as if God is saying that this creature's potential comes from its ability to name, to give symbolic designation to things in creation, an ability that makes humans worthy to become God's deputies on earth. Through this human ability to symbolize, God's prophecy will unfold, even though humanity itself does not see this divine futuristic vision. Our species is still realizing the expectations and predictions of the angels, instead of God's vision10. Indeed, Satan himself is unwilling to accept God's conferral of authority upon humans11, tempting them with the prospect of their own power as gods: ::'''Then did Satan make them slip from the (garden), and get them out of the state (of felicity) in which they had been. We said: `Get you down, all (you people), with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling place and your means of livelihood for a time.' '''(Id. at 36) ::'''Then began Satan to whisper suggestions (insinuate) to them, in order to reveal to them their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: "Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest you should become angels or join those who are immortal12." '''(Surah 7 Al-A'raf 20) However, when Adam and Eve fall for Satan's lure, God addresses them equally to signify their equal responsibility and status, and they confess the injustice they have committed: "They said: `Our Lord! We have been unjust to ourselves (wronged ourselves). If You forgive us not and bestow not upon us Your mercy, we shall certainly be lost. "' (Id. at 23) It is perhaps this ability to admit the truth that made Adam worthy of vicegerency13, unlike Satan, or (Iblis), who thought himself too important to recognize the trust given to Adam. Not only did Satan refuse to take responsibility for his own actions14, but he took pride in his material origins: (God) said: "What prevented you from bowing down when I commanded you?" He said: "I am better than he: You did create me from fire, and him from clay." (Id. at 12) Like Satan, the racial pride and reference to one's origins and refusal to take responsibility for disobedience leads to religious, ethnic and even civilizational conflicts. History teaches us that civilizations do not perish as martyrs, but as suicides from their internal diseases. Solutions come from the self, from discovering one's mistakes, not from blaming others. That is why the Qur'an suggests that God is not responsible for injustice, for injustice comes from the self and is worse than injustice inflicted by any other15. The Soviet Union perished through its own injustice and so will other societies, even those that consider themselves to be orthodox, to be beloved sons of God. The Qur'an condemns what some call orthodoxy as self perceived exalted status, and shows how judging other nations as less worthy is a common problem that afflicts us all: "And they say: `None shall enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian.' Those are their (vain) desires. Say: `Produce your proof if you are truthful. "' (Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 112) All religious and political communities reward themselves with a monopoly over paradise in their stories and tales. These are only mere human wishes, which many previous nations have expressed; but the law of the Lord in history is not based on some whimsical illusion or on favoritism for some at the expense of others. According to the Qur'an, the law of the Lord does not distinguish among humans. "Nay¬whoever submits his face (self) to God while compassionate (doer of good) has his reward with his Lord; on such shall be no fear, Nor shall they grieve." (Id. at 111)16 ==Footnotes== 1 From the abridgement of Sahih Muslim by Hafiz Mundhiri, edited by Mustafa A1 Bugha. From the Book of Zulm, section 1 under the number 1828. The Qur'an also says: "Whatever good happens to thee, is &om God; but whatever evil happens to thee, is from thy (own) self. And We have sent thee as a messenger to humankind and enough is God for a witness." Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 79. 2 "The scribes and Pharisees occupy Moses' seat; so be careful to do whatever they tell you. But do not follow their practice; for they say one thing and do another. They make up heavy loads and pile them on the shoulders of others, but will not themselves lift a finger to ease the burden. Whatever they do is done for show . . . ." Matt 23:2-5. 3 H.G. Wells, The Outline of History (N.Y.: Macmillan Co. 1920) (Illustrated). 4 Charles C. Lemert & Gillan Garth, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics 11 (Hubert L. Drefus & Paul Rabinow, eds., Chicago: U. of Chi. Press 1982). 5 41. Id. 6 As the Gospel of Matthew says, "[A]nd whosoever wants to be first [chiet] must be the slave of all." Matt 20:27. 7 Surah 40 Ghafir: 29. Pharaoh also tells his (followers) about Moses and his call: "Said Pharaoh: Leave me to slay Moses; and let him call on his Lord! What I fear is lest he should change your religion, or lest he should cause mischief to appear in the land! "' Id. at 26. 8 God tells Moses and his brother after preparation and training: Go, you and you brother. With my signs, and slacken not, either of you, in keeping Me in remembrance. Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, for he has indeed dominated (transgressed all bounds); But speak to him mildly; perchance he may remember or fear. They (Moses and Aaron) said: `Our Lord! We fear lest he hasten with insolence against us, or lest he tyrannizes.' He said: ` Fear not: for I am with you: I hear and see (everything). So go you both to him, and say, `Verily we are messengers sent by your Lord: send forth, therefore, the Children of Israel with us, and afflict them not: with a sign, indeed, have we come from your Lord! And peace to all who follow guidance!" Surah 20 Ta Ha: 42¬47. 9 (Pharaoh) said: `What then is the condition of previous generations?' He replied: `The knowledge of that is with my Lord, duly recorded: my Lord never errs, nor forgets.' Then Pharaoh replies: He said: `Have you not come to drive us out of our land with your magic O Moses.' `But we can surely produce magic to match yours! So make a tryst between us and you, which we shall not fail to keep-neither we nor you-in a place where both shall have even chances.' Then Pharaoh consults with his chiefs about Moses: So, they disputed, one with another, over their affair, but they kept their talk secret. They said: `These two are certainly (expert) magicians: their object is to drive you out from your land with their magic, and to do away with most cherished institution.' Surah 20 Ta Ha: 51-52, 57-58, 60, 62-63. 10 It is said: "And behold, We said to the angels: `Bow down to Adam:' and they bowed down: not so Iblis (Satan): he refused and was haughty; he was of infidels." Surah 2 AI Baqarah: 34. 11 "We said: `O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) you will; but approach not this tree, or you be among the unjust (transgressors)."' Id. at 35. 12 The passage continues: "And he swore to them both, that he was their sincere adviser. So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over themselves. . . . And their Lord called unto them: "Did I not forbid you that tree, And tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?" Surah 7 Al-A'raf 21-22. 13 Although the Qur'an states that Satan had a big role in tempting them to eat from the tree by arguing that it would give them immortality and eternal authority, Adam and Eve confessed that it was they who wronged themselves. Satan presented himself as a sincere counsel. But Adam and Eve did not mention Satan's temptation and misleading. Rather, they took the burden of responsibility without trying to place blame somewhere else. T'hey perhaps even felt that blaming Satan would condemn them twice whereas admitting the truth could redeem their wrong 14 We hear: Then We bade the angels bow down to Adam, and they bowed down; not so Iblis; He refused to be of those who bowed down. (God) said: `Get thee down from this: it is not for thee to be arrogant here: get out, for thou art of the meanest.' He said: `Give me respite till the day they are raised up.' (God) said: `Be thou amongst those who have respite.' He said: `Because Thou hast thrown me out of the way (misled me), lo! I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way.' Surah 7 A1 A'raf 12-16. It is impottant to note that Satan had two reasons to excuse his disobedience. First, he used his material origin, arguing that he was created of a matter better than Adam's. Second, he used his worldview to explain his disobedience, arguing that God made him sin. 15 For instance, there are passages that read: "Whatever good, happens to you, is &om God; but whatever evil happens to you is from your own self." Surah 4 Al-Nisaa: 79. "God was not unjust to them: nay, they were unjust to themselves." Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 33. So, any judgement about others is a judgement about one's self be it good or bad. Moreover, the Surah says: "Whoever works righteousness benefits his own self; whoever misbehaves, it is against his own self; nor is your Lord ever unjust (in the least) to his servants." Surah 41 Fussilat: 46. 16 . The Qur'an also says: Nor your desires, nor those of the People of the Book (Can prevail): whoever works evil, will be requited accordingly. Nor will he find, besides God, any protector or helper. Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 123. (Both) the Jews and the Christians said: `We are the sons of God, and his beloved.' Say: `Why then does He punish you for your mistakes (sins). Nay, you are but humans of those He has created. . . .' Surah 5 A1 Ma'idah: 18. This passage implies the equality of all human beings: God does not have sons above the law, and no group of people have special privileges, not even the peoples of the Book: The Jews say: `The Christians have naught (to stand) upon,' And the Christians say: `The Jews have naught (to stand) upon.' Yet they study the same Book. Like unto their word is what those say who know not; but God will judge between them in their quarrel on the Day of Judgement. Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 1 13. This is the message of all prophets, as the Biblical story of John the Baptist shows: When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them: `Vipers' brood! Who warned to escape from the wrath that is to come? Prove your repentance by the fruit you bear; and do not imagine you can say, `We have Abraham for our father.' I tell you that God can make children for Abraham out of these stones. The axe lies ready at the roots of the trees; every tree that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. Matt 3:7-10. We read these words elsewhere in the Bible as well: Many, I tell you, will come from the east and west to sit with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of Heaven. But those who were born to the kingdom will be thrown out into the dark, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Man 8:11-12. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because my teaching is beyond your grasp. Your father is the devil and you choose to carry out your father's desires. John 8: 43-44. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION] 0 58 148 2009-08-23T11:03:31Z Admin 1 moved [[Interpretation of the holy texts]] to [[12: Interpretation of the holy texts]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[12: Interpretation of the holy texts]] 0 22 49 39 2009-05-06T08:48:51Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} [[Category:Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] 39 2009-05-06T07:45:39Z Admin 1 Created page with '{| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in...' wikitext text/x-wiki {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} [[Category:Interview With Current Islamic Issues]] 0 21 37 2009-05-06T07:36:48Z Admin 1 Created page with '{| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in...' wikitext text/x-wiki {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[Features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of Jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} [[Category:Inverview with Abduljabar]] 0 54 133 2009-08-23T10:37:24Z Admin 1 moved [[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] to [[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] 0 2 72 35 2009-05-07T17:17:55Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki We live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 35 34 2009-05-06T06:48:54Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 34 27 2009-05-06T06:48:07Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} 27 26 2009-05-06T06:25:00Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki [[INTRODUCTION]] [[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] [[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] [[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] [[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] [[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] [[No Compulsion in Religion]] [[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] [[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] [[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] [[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] [[Prophetic Disobedience]] [[Intellectual Healing]] [[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] [[The Call of Democracy]] [[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] [[A Return to the Text]] 26 5 2009-05-06T06:24:27Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki [[INTRODUCTION]] [[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] [[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] [[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] [[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] [[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] [[No Compulsion in Religion]] [[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] [[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] [[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] [[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] [[Prophetic Disobedience]] [[Intellectual Healing]] [[THE PUR.POSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] [[The Call of Democracy]] [[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] [[A Return to the Text]] 5 4 2009-04-23T11:51:02Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki I. [[INTRODUCTION]] II. [[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] III. [[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] [[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] IV. [[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] V. [[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] [[No Compulsion in Religion]] [[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] [[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] [[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] VI. [[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] [[Prophetic Disobedience]] [[Intellectual Healing]] VII. [[THE PUR.POSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] [[The Call of Democracy]] [[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] [[A Return to the Text]] 4 2009-04-23T11:50:07Z Admin 1 Created page with 'I. [[INTRODUCTION]] II. [[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] III. [[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] [[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] IV. [[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURA...' wikitext text/x-wiki I. [[INTRODUCTION]] II. [[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] III. [[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] [[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] IV. [[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] V. [[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] [[No Compulsion in Religion]] [[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] [[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] [[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] [[VI. THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS [[Prophetic Disobedience]] [[Intellectual Healing]] VII. [[THE PUR.POSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION [[The Call of Democracy]] [[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] [[A Return to the Text]] 0 61 164 163 2009-12-17T09:20:07Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010 "Le rôle des acteurs religieux dans la construction de la paix et de la démocratie" Jawdat Said Mohamed Louange à Dieu et paix sur ses serviteurs qu'il a élus ainsi que sur ceux qui ordonnent la justice ==Introduction== J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. Le titre du livre "Jusqu'ils changent ce qu'il y a dans leurs âmes" était une partie d'un texte coranique. La thèse y était que la crise a lieu dans la pensée avant de l'être dans la réalité. La crise commence chez le penseur avant de se manifester chez l'homme politique. Le monde est en crise parce que le penseur est en crise. Cela s'applique à toutes les crises du monde: celles de l'environnement, du climat, de l'alimentation, de l'économie, de la coexistence et de toutes sortes de conflits et de guerres. Toutes les crises ont une seule source, celle de la crise des idées. La thèse de ce livre reste d'actualité. Les idées et les penseurs sont à l'origine de la crise, que ce soit dans celles qu'ils expriment ou celles qu'ils n'expriment pas. C'est pourquoi il est une grande falsification que les intellectuels s'y présentent comme "sauveurs". Ils doivent plutôt s'y présenter comme repentants. Ils doivent y assister pour opérer une révision de leurs idées et une reconsidération radicale de leurs racines. Malheureusement, le rôle de l'intellectuel manifeste deux grandes anomalies: - Soit dans sa compréhension et dans sa conscience qui est en deçà de l'histoire. Il est incapable de se faire une vision actualisée du monde reposant sur l'histoire et prospectant l'avenir. Une vision qui lui permettrait de fournir aux hommes politiques des conseils utiles et justes susceptibles de changer la vocation de ce monde producteur de crises. - Soit, il est tacitement compromis, satisfait qu'il est des privilèges égoïstes que leur procurent les situations en place. Ces privilèges l'amènent à fermer les yeux sur ce qui se passe dans le monde et à présenter aux hommes politiques qui leur demandent conseils ce qu'ils veulent faire et non ce qu'ils doivent faire . Cette compromission est, selon PIERRE BOURDIEU, est la principale cause de la situation dans la quelle nous sommes. Aujourd'hui, je sens qu'il est de mon devoir de présenter mon point de vue comme observateur de ce monde tourmenté dans lequel se confondent intérêts et pertes. Un monde où le cinquième de l'humanité jouit de savoir, de richesse et de privilèges alors que vivent dans la misère et la corruption les quatre cinquièmes. Je tenterai, ici, d'expliquer une situation humaine difficile, non parce qu'elle est confuse mais parce qu'elle est très claire, voire évidente. Toutefois, cette évidence est semblable à notre vision de la position du soleil par rapport à la terre. Les hommes croyaient pendant longtemps que le soleil tournait autour de la terre. Il s'est avéré que c'est nous qui tournons autour du soleil. Nous envisageons bien des choses évidentes par une telle confusion. L'objet de cette recherche fait partie de ces choses à la fois claires et confuses. Dans le monde que nous vivons aujourd'hui, une faible minorité blanche ne représentant pas plus de 20% de l'humanité jouit de 80% des richesses mondiales, alors que celles des 20% reculent à moins de 1,4%. Dans chaque société, les richesses sont partagées de la même façon. L'actuel ordre international est presque consacré à maintenir ce partage et à garantir ces privilèges. ==L'homme, la corruption et l'effusion de sang sont, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, le problème des et la raison pour laquelle nous sommes réunis! == Ayant foi dans la raison et dans la révélation; lisant les signes de Dieu dans l'univers et dans le livre, suivant de près ce qui se passe dans le monde, je donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements ; faisant le tour du texte et de la réalité; vivant la dialectique entre révélation et histoire, je trouve que le Coran me rend facile l'accès à une telle recherche, car il donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements et annonce que l'univers connaît une création et une évolution permanentes. Cette évolution va dans le sens du meilleur. Le Coran affirme le scellement des prophéties, la fermeture de la porte du ciel et la fin de l'ère des prophètes en faveur de l'avènement de celle de la raison humaine et ce, lorsque "ceux qui ordonnent la justice" parmi les intellectuels assument la fonction de prophètes . En contrepartie de la fermeture de la porte du ciel, le Coran ouvre la porte de la terre. L'Histoire et les conséquences des événements sont devenues la source du savoir et de la révélation permanentes: "Dis: allez par terre et regardez comment Il a commencé la création" (L'Araignée: 20). En contrepartie de la fin de l'ère des prophètes, les activistes religieux et les intellectuels assument la mission de la réforme, mission qui constitue, je le pense, l'objectif de votre conférence. Selon ma compréhension, le Coran aborde, de trois aspects, cette question objet de la conférence et ce, à travers trois récits: *Le premier récit est celui de l'homme et de la corruption. *Le 2ème récit est celui de la responsabilité. *Le 3ème récit est celui de la non-violence et de la raison. Quiconque veut comprendre ces récits comme des vérités historiques peut le faire, mais qui y voit des récits symboliques peut le faire également sans le moindre inconvénient. C qui compte c'est de s'arrêter sur ses visées : 1- Les anges s'opposèrent à la création de l'homme au premier instant de la création: "Ils dirent: vous y créez celui qui y sème la corruption et fait couler le sang ?" Dieu répond: "Je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Comme l'Histoire nous le fait savoir, le texte trace l'horizon vers lequel l'homme se meut. Il commence par la corruption et l'effusion du sang, mais la ligne de l'évolution et la direction du progrès sont celles de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Si, selon les prévisions des anges, les hommes ne savent aujourd'hui que faire couler le sang et mener des guerres et des conflits, autrement dit, s'ils ne concrétisent pas encore la science de Dieu, nous observons dans l'Histoire ce que nous lisons dans le livre, à savoir que l'homme fait se pas en direction de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas" (La Génisse: 30). 2- Dans le 2ème récit, le Coran parle d'Adam et de sa femme à qui Dieu recommanda: "n'approchez pas cet arbre" Mais ils rompirent leur pacte en mangeant de cet arbre prohibé. Toutefois, lorsque leur Seigneur les appela "ne vous ai-je pas interdit (d'approcher) cet arbre" leur réponse fut: "Seigneur, nous avons commis une injustice envers nous-mêmes" Ils reconnurent leur faute et assumèrent la responsabilité de leur acte. Nous pouvons lire dans cela une réplique à l'accusation des anges contenue dans le premier texte. Cette réponse trace les traits de la voie de Dieu, celle du progrès de l'homme dans l'Histoire. Cette réponse est contraire celle de Satan qui justifia sa désobéissance; tantôt par des arguments racistes "je suis meilleur que lui", tantôt par des arguments philosophiques "puisque vous m'avez égaré" La morale du récit consiste en ceci: innocenter soi –même en accusant autrui ne constitue pas une solution du problème, mais une déviation de la voie de sa solution. Cette dernière réside dans l'accusation de soi-même. Hélas, les hommes suivent, jusqu'à nos jours, la doctrine de Satan, à savoir s'innocenter et accuser autrui. Ils ne suivent pas celle d'Adam accusant soi –même, doctrine que soutiennent les lois de l'Histoire, les faits de la vie et la méthodologie du Coran: "ce qui t'atteint comme mal il vient de toi-même" (Les Femmes: 79). 3- Dans le dernier récit, celui des deux fils d'Adam, le fils qui échoua dit à l'autre qui gagna: "je te tuerai". Il l'accusa d'être la cause de son échec au lieu de s'en accuser lui-même. Il trouva dans le meurtre une solution. Mais celui qui prit conscience de son humanité et sut découvrir la grâce de Dieu dans le cerveau dont il l'a doué refusa de tomber dans le monde bas des muscles. Reconnaissant la grâce de la raison, il répondit: "si tu me tends la main pour me tuer je ne tendrai pas à toi pour te tuer, je crains Dieu, Seigneur des univers"(La Table: 27-28). Il refusa obstinément et avec un haut sens de responsabilité de participer au meurtre, prenant conscience du fait qu'il disposait d'un nouveau pouvoir, celui de la raison qu'il devait désormais utiliser. Il inaugura une nouvelle ère et réalisa un nouveau bond dans l'Histoire et dans la conscience humaine. Ainsi, l'Histoire ne commença pas par le meurtre ou le crime, mais par une action humaine, celle de la non-violence. Il refusa le meurtre, l'effusion de sang et la défense de soi . L'Histoire a inscrit à maintes reprises ce martyre dont le plus évident fut Socrate bravant et acceptant la mort pour ne pas arrêter son dialogue avec sa raison. Il ne renonça pas à son devoir ou à sa responsabilité. La morale de ces récits réside dans la confiance dans l'homme et dans son avenir, dans l'affirmation de son aptitude à construire la terre, dans la foi dans sa capacité à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à consolider la justice et ce, par la prise de conscience par les hommes en général et par les intellectuels en particulier de leur responsabilité historiques. C'est pourquoi ils ne doivent pas attendre un sauveur, car ils sont tous des sauveurs selon la voie de Dieu et la voie du Fils d'Adam; celle du respect de la raison. Un tel respect signifie automatiquement que l'on accuse soi-même et que l'on emprunte la voie de la non-violence. Croire dans la raison comme méthode de résolution des problèmes signifie l'exclusion de la violence ou le meurtre. ==Unifier Dieu est la justice== Selon le Coran, la justice est le point de départ de la nouvelle théologie qui est celle de l'unification de dieu. Unifier celui qui est au ciel n'est pas une question métaphysique mais une question sociopolitique. Cela veut dire qu'il n'y a pas de dieux humains sur terre. Tant qu'il y a des privilèges dans le monde il n'y aura ni paix ni préservation des vies humaines, mais misère d'un côté et inquiétude de l'autre, misère et souffrances chez la majorité de la population de la planète et crainte et anxiété chez la minorité riche. Tout le monde végète dans l'enfer de la peur que ce soit pour gagner son pain ou pour préserver ses privilèges. Selon le Coran, l'objectif de l'envoi des prophètes était que" les hommes se comporte en justice" (Le Fer m 25). C'est qu'explique le verset de l'égalité: "Venez à un mot d'égalité….." (Famille d'Imran m 64) dans une allusion claire au fait que l'unification de Dieu au ciel signifie l'égalité des hommes sur terre. Cette conception de l'unicité et de la justice rend l'idéalisme réaliste, le métaphysique physique, le divin humain et le surnaturel naturel. La religion devient-elle une science. Vous discutez aujourd'hui du rôle des religieux dans les zones des conflits. Je dis que toute la terre est une zone de conflits. Les conflits régionaux et la corruption régionale participent de la grande corruption à l'ONU. Les privilèges que les Grands veulent maintenir sont la source de tous les maux. Il n'y aura ni sécurité ni paix sur terre tant que la justice restera un choix exclus pour la résolution des conflits, tant que nous ferons le culte de la force et tant que nous resterons silencieux au Conseil de sécurité à l'égard du droit au veto qui entrave le développement du monde: "nous n'avons détruit les villes que parce que leurs habitant furent injustes" (Les récits: 59). Je me demande si le nazisme et le fascisme avaient remporté la victoire à la guerre auraient-ils pu créer une instance pire que l'ONU. Hitler et MOUSSILINI auraient-ils fait autre chose que de donner à eux-mêmes et au Japon le droit ay veto ? L'ordre international sous lequel nous vivons aujourd'hui consacre la loi de la jungle. Il est imposé par la force des vainqueurs de la 2ème guerre mondiale. L'ONU est un temple où sont adorées les idoles de la force. C'est une feuille qui ne cache pas mais montre plutôt la nudité de l'humanité. Comment prêcher les droits de l'homme et la démocratie tout en approuvant un principe contraire à la démocratie, aux droits de l'homme et à l'humanité ? Quiconque le fait ressemble à celui qui voit la paille dans l'œil d'autrui et ne voit pas la poutre dans le sien. Passer au silence l'injustice et la corruption constitue une hypocrisie politique, religieuse et culturelle. Or, l'Histoire nous apprend que les privilégiés ne renoncent pas volontairement à leurs privilèges. Une telle analyse me procure une grande satisfaction, d'autant plus qu'elle repose sur l'Histoire, la parole des prophètes et les faits de la vie. Je prêche une parole d'égalité que le Coran définit comme suit: "que nous ne sous prenions pas pour des dieux les uns les autres" (Famille d'Imran: 64). Cela veut dire que nul ne doit être au-dessus de la loi, car si c'est le cas ce sera l'idolâtrie, ce péché que impardonnable et cette grande injustice qui fait échouer toutes les actions et avec quoi mêmes mes bonnes actions sont inutiles. C'est-là la source de tous les malheurs de l'Histoire. Qu'il entende celui qui a des oreilles! Nous nous devons de rénover le monde et de rénover ses principes. Les principes de militaires ainsi que le culte de la force ne sauraient produire qu'un monde malade et en crise, comme celui auquel nous assistons, un monde où le dernier mot est au à la force, un monde où prévaut l'injustice, un monde gouverné par le droit au veto,( cet héritage romain qui coupe court avec la modernité) et qui constitue une violation permanente et flagrante des principes des droits de l'homme et reste un alibi pour les petits tyrans du tiers-monde. Ce que l'on peut inscrire en faveur des Européens c'est qu'ils ont créé non seulement des moyens de transport et de diffusion des informations, mais également un moyen de passation du pouvoir autre que celui du meurtre et de l'héritage. Un moyen qui respecte la raison humaine, fait revivifier le sens de la légalité, donne une valeur au choix des hommes, exactement comme le pratiquait MOHAMMED au VIIème siècle. Je répète toujours que l'homme est la plus grande création de Dieu et que la démocratie est la plus grande création de l'homme. L'essence de cette démocratie réside dans le fait que tous les hommes croient dans la nécessité de ne pas recourir à la violence dans le règlement des problèmes mais à la conviction et aux urnes. La démocratie est une nouvelle création; elle évolue pour le meilleur. La démocratisation du monde est le défi à relever par les intellectuels et les hommes politiques afin de rendre le monde plus sûr et rende tous les hommes plus tranquilles. O monde des Grande, vous resterez dans la nullité jusqu'à ce que vous accepteriez que l'ONU devienne un forum démocratique ayant trois instances: législative, exécutive et juridique. C'est à ce moment-là que nous dirons que le concept de légalité est consolidé, que la justice et la paix prévalent et que les vœux de tous les prophètes sont exaucés. ==Les signes des horizons et des âmes et l'Histoire comme référence== "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs âmes afin qu'ils puissent connaître qu'il est la vérité. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit témoin de toute chose?" (L'Articulation: 53) "Dis: allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs" (les Troupeaux: 11) "Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas: 39) Le Coran utilise les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes, comme des témoins justes qui ne sauraient être accusés de partialité et de parti pris. Quiconque puisse défendre sa cause par les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes réunit les conditions de sa validation. Ainsi, son argumentation sortira-t-elle du monde de l'inconnaissable pour entrer dans celui du connaissable. Selon le Coran, l'Histoire devient ainsi arbitre et source de compréhension du comportement humain: "des précédents sont déjà passés avant vous, allez par terre et regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs (Famille d'Imran: 137) Il s'agit l) d'un principe coranique qui exige de nous de regarder le passé et de l'étudier. C'est une langue que nul ne peut nier, que ce soit dans les signes sur les horizons (ceux du monde extérieur) ou ceux dans les âmes (ceux du comportement humain). Le Coran dit: "N'as-tu pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers Ad, envers ceux de Thamoud qui affouillaient la roche dans le val, envers Pharaon; maître des pilastres. Ils commettaient l'outrance dans le monde, ils n'y faisaient qu'accroître la corruption; alors ton Seigneur sur eux déversa le fouet du supplice. Oui, ton Seigneur est aux aguets" (L'Aube: 6-14)/ C'est une loi immuable qui ne saurait changer . Ainsi pourrons-nous trouver un guide dans cette manière de voir les choses; nous pourrions dire: n'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers l'URSS qui tomba de l'intérieur en disposant d'armes capables de détruire le globe ? N'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa votre Seigneur envers Hitler et Napoléon. Je ne suis pas intéressé par l'énumération des malheurs et des événements; je suis plutôt intéressé de prouver le principe de la référence de l'Histoire. Sur ce point, je dois m'arrêter pour dire que l'évolution a mené l'homme malgré lui à la démocratie qui signifie la raison, la conviction et la paix. En vertu de cette vision, j'avais annoncé la mort de la guerre avec la première explosion nucléaire. Les Grands ne sont plus capables de faire la guerre. Ils utilisent l'ignorance des ignorants, voire l'exploitent en leur vendant des armes. Les guerres offrent l'occasion de faire des sacrifices humains. Le meurtre n'a jamais été une solution des problèmes. Au contraire, il n'a fait qu'aggraver les problèmes. C'est la leçon tirée de l'Histoire. Selon cette vision, l'Union européenne est une concrétisation du mot d'égalité. Elle est la plus grande réalisation de la raison humaine. Les européens ont cru dans ce qu'il y a de plus sacré dans les religions, à savoir ne pas se prendre pour de dieux les uns les autres, au moins parmi eux. Ils se sont débarrassés de Napoléon et d'Hitler. C'est leur culture qui l'a créé, ce n'était pas un don du ciel. C'était le fruit des souffrances. Ce n'était ni Napoléon ni Hitler ni la force ni la contrainte qui l'ont fait, mais la raison humaine, cette créature de Dieu qui a su comprendre la leçon de l'Histoire après avoir expérimenté tant de guerre, celles des cent ans, des trente ans, des guerres de religions et des guerres mondiales où elle fait sacrifice de centaines de millions de victimes. Cette Union ne croitra pas par la conquête ou l'annexion militaire mais avec l'approbation de toutes les parties en calculant bénéfices et intérêts sur la base de cette règle: personne ne perdra rien et tous y gagneront. C'est une conquête volontaire à telle point que les pays qui désirent y adhérer crient: admettez-nous et nous acceptons toutes vos les conditions. C'est grande conquête évidente. Certes, vous n'avez pas unifié le monde mais cette manière de s'unir peut obtenir l'unanimité du monde. C'est une chose la plus proche de la religion de Dieu, de ses envoyés et de la nature de l'humanité. C'est un nouveau fait parmi tous ce que les hommes ont expérimenté. ==Conclusion== Le monde d'ici-bas n'a ni commencé ni pris fin chez nous. Il y a dix mille ans seulement; l'homme vivait nu dans les cavernes mangeant de la chaire de son frère,. Cette période des débuts de l'humanité ressemble aux premières années de l'enfant qui ne pouvait même pas se nettoyer. Il n'y a pas de honte là-dessus, mais honte il y a lorsqu'il reste ainsi en âge de majorité! Elle est une honte pour les intellectuels de voir les hommes se tuer les uns les autres. Notre existence dans ce monde n'est ni absurdité ni nullité, le bonheur de l'homme découle de son action servant une cause juste. La plus grande mission à s'atteler consiste à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à l'effusion de sang. L'ère des prophètes a pris fin et la responsabilité est passée aux tenants de la science qui doivent faire sortir les hommes des ténèbres vers la lumière, c'est vers "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Les plus proches de Dieu sont ceux qui rendent le plus de services à leurs frères, les hommes. Les prophètes sont venus pour amener les hommes à faire à se devancer les uns les autres dans l'accomplissement des bonnes actions. Faisons la concurrence dans la manière d'édifier la paix mondiale et dans la manière de construire une société mondiale où les hommes deviennent égaux devant la loi. Ainsi réaliserons-nous la volonté de Dieu et les vœux des prophètes. Gloire à Dieu dans les lieux très-hauts; et sur la terre, paix; et bon plaisir dans les hommes! Mai être là gloire pour Dieu au-dessus, l'amour pour les gens et la paix sur Terre. Mai la paix, la miséricorde et l'abondance soient sur vous. Jawdat Said Mohamed Syrie - Beer Ajam Tél: +963 14 444 00 13 E-mail: Jawdatsaid@gmail.com Page Web: www.jawdatsaid.net/en ==Footnotes== 1. Santiago Genovic, documents de la conférence de Venise le 17 mars 1986/ 2. Je donne souvent cet exemple, car il explique la possibilité de tomber dans l'erreur dans l'appréciation des choses les plus évidentes et simples. Les hommes sont disposés à mourir pour défendre de fausses conceptions et à envoyer les autres à la mort. Si le soleil, qui sert d'exemple pour les choses évidentes, devient un exemple pour les choses cachées, et si les hommes sont à ce point capables de tomber dans l'erreur pendant des milliers d'années, que peut-on dire des conceptions et des interprétations pour lesquelles nous n'admettrons point d'erreur au point de nous permettre d'envoyer les gens à la mort ? 3. Parmi les versets qui les soulignent, il y a "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs âmes afin qu'ils puissent connaître qu'il est la vérité. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit témoin de toute chose ?" (L'Articulation : 53)/ "Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des criminels" (les Redans : 88) " Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des corrupteurs" (les Redans : 86)/"Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas : 39). Dans l'Evangile de MT : 16: 7 : " De leurs fruits vous les reconnaitrez; récolteront-ils des raisins des épines et des figues des os des poissons ? " 4. "Il accroit dans la création ce qu'il veut…" (Créateur : 1) et "…Et les chevaux, les mulets et les ânes pour les monter et pour l'apparat et il crée d'autres chose que vous ne savez pas" (L es Abeilles : 8) 5. Etant donné que l'objectif essentiel du message des prophètes était que les hommes mettent en œuvre la justice, conformément au verset : 'Nous avons envoyé nos envoyés avec des preuves évidentes et nous avons fait descendre avec eux l'Ecriture et la balance pour que les hommes mettent en œuvre la justice…' (Le Fer m 25); les privilégiés ont visé ces prophètes par le meurtre. C'est pourquoi Dieu leur a fait joindre ceux qui ordonnent la justice : "ceux qui dénient les signes de Dieu et tuent les prophètes à contre vérité, et tuent ceux des humains qui ordonnent la justice annonce-leur un châtiment douloureux…" (Famille d'Imran : 21) Mais le témoignage de l'unicité de Dieu et de la justice vient des gens de science sans citer les prophètes : "Dieu témoigne qu'il n'est de dieu que Lui (comme en témoignent) aussi les anges et les gens de sciences (et c'est là de Sa part) accomplir la justice" (Famille d'Imran : 18) 6. Lorsque je puise dans le Coran, je ne fais pas pour imposer à celui qui m'entend ma foi dans le Coran. La vérité du propos ne tient pas à celui qui la dit, mais à sa crédibilité dans la réalité. Je suis étonné du peu d'intérêt qu'accordent les modernistes à des illustrations puisées dans le Coran ou dans les autres livres saints. Supposez ce que vous voulez; n'est-ce pas là des propos sur lesquels s'appliquent les fruits des idées des hommes que l'on accepte de s'y puiser, à tire d'illustration. 7. Nous devons souligner ici que le Coran avait ordonné aux musulmans de s'abstenir de se défendre : "Retenez vos mains et accomplissez la prière" (Les Femmes : 77). Ensuite, il les invita à pratiquer un type rare de désobéissance : 'Ne lui obéit pas et prosterne-toi…" l'Adhérence : 19). Pour sa part, le Prophète prêcha l'observation de la méthode du Fils tué d'Adam dans les circonstances de troubles et de perte de la légalité, il dit "sois comme le meilleur des deux fils d'Adam. Si tu crains que la lumière de ton sabre ne t'en enivre jette sur ton visage ta tenue". Il leur interdit de se défendre, car il voulait édifier une société de légalité. Celle-ci ne se réalise ni par la violence ni par la force. L'individu dans une société légale est protégé par la société et les instances de cette société. Si l'individu doit se protéger lui-même ce sera la loi de la jungle. En optant pour la violence, BEN LADEN puise dans le patrimoine et les idées de la révolution française prônant le droit des peuples à résister contre les colonisateurs et les occupants par tous les moyens. Il n'opte pas pour la méthode des prophètes en matière de réforme et de changement (voir deux livres de l'auteur : "Sois comme le fils d'Adam" et "La religion et la loi"). 8. Dans le Coran : 'Dis : Gens du Livre, vous êtes dans la nullité tant que vous n'appliquez pas la Torah et l'Evangile et la révélation sur vous descendue de votre Seigneur…" (La Table : 68) 9. Dans le Coran : "Telle fut la loi de Dieu à l'égard des révolus, la loi de Dieu nul ne saura la changer" (Les Coalisés : 62) 163 162 2009-12-17T09:15:46Z Admin 1 /* Footnotes */ wikitext text/x-wiki Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010 "Le rôle des acteurs religieux dans la construction de la paix et de la démocratie" Jawdat Said Mohamed Louange à Dieu et paix sur ses serviteurs qu'il a élus ainsi que sur ceux qui ordonnent la justice ==Introduction== J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. Le titre du livre "Jusqu'ils changent ce qu'il y a dans leurs âmes" était une partie d'un texte coranique. La thèse y était que la crise a lieu dans la pensée avant de l'être dans la réalité. La crise commence chez le penseur avant de se manifester chez l'homme politique. Le monde est en crise parce que le penseur est en crise. Cela s'applique à toutes les crises du monde: celles de l'environnement, du climat, de l'alimentation, de l'économie, de la coexistence et de toutes sortes de conflits et de guerres. Toutes les crises ont une seule source, celle de la crise des idées. La thèse de ce livre reste d'actualité. Les idées et les penseurs sont à l'origine de la crise, que ce soit dans celles qu'ils expriment ou celles qu'ils n'expriment pas. C'est pourquoi il est une grande falsification que les intellectuels s'y présentent comme "sauveurs". Ils doivent plutôt s'y présenter comme repentants. Ils doivent y assister pour opérer une révision de leurs idées et une reconsidération radicale de leurs racines. Malheureusement, le rôle de l'intellectuel manifeste deux grandes anomalies: - Soit dans sa compréhension et dans sa conscience qui est en deçà de l'histoire. Il est incapable de se faire une vision actualisée du monde reposant sur l'histoire et prospectant l'avenir. Une vision qui lui permettrait de fournir aux hommes politiques des conseils utiles et justes susceptibles de changer la vocation de ce monde producteur de crises. - Soit, il est tacitement compromis, satisfait qu'il est des privilèges égoïstes que leur procurent les situations en place. Ces privilèges l'amènent à fermer les yeux sur ce qui se passe dans le monde et à présenter aux hommes politiques qui leur demandent conseils ce qu'ils veulent faire et non ce qu'ils doivent faire . Cette compromission est, selon PIERRE BOURDIEU, est la principale cause de la situation dans la quelle nous sommes. Aujourd'hui, je sens qu'il est de mon devoir de présenter mon point de vue comme observateur de ce monde tourmenté dans lequel se confondent intérêts et pertes. Un monde où le cinquième de l'humanité jouit de savoir, de richesse et de privilèges alors que vivent dans la misère et la corruption les quatre cinquièmes. Je tenterai, ici, d'expliquer une situation humaine difficile, non parce qu'elle est confuse mais parce qu'elle est très claire, voire évidente. Toutefois, cette évidence est semblable à notre vision de la position du soleil par rapport à la terre. Les hommes croyaient pendant longtemps que le soleil tournait autour de la terre. Il s'est avéré que c'est nous qui tournons autour du soleil. Nous envisageons bien des choses évidentes par une telle confusion. L'objet de cette recherche fait partie de ces choses à la fois claires et confuses. Dans le monde que nous vivons aujourd'hui, une faible minorité blanche ne représentant pas plus de 20% de l'humanité jouit de 80% des richesses mondiales, alors que celles des 20% reculent à moins de 1,4%. Dans chaque société, les richesses sont partagées de la même façon. L'actuel ordre international est presque consacré à maintenir ce partage et à garantir ces privilèges. ==L'homme, la corruption et l'effusion de sang sont, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, le problème des et la raison pour laquelle nous sommes réunis! == Ayant foi dans la raison et dans la révélation; lisant les signes de Dieu dans l'univers et dans le livre, suivant de près ce qui se passe dans le monde, je donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements ; faisant le tour du texte et de la réalité; vivant la dialectique entre révélation et histoire, je trouve que le Coran me rend facile l'accès à une telle recherche, car il donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements et annonce que l'univers connaît une création et une évolution permanentes. Cette évolution va dans le sens du meilleur. Le Coran affirme le scellement des prophéties, la fermeture de la porte du ciel et la fin de l'ère des prophètes en faveur de l'avènement de celle de la raison humaine et ce, lorsque "ceux qui ordonnent la justice" parmi les intellectuels assument la fonction de prophètes . En contrepartie de la fermeture de la porte du ciel, le Coran ouvre la porte de la terre. L'Histoire et les conséquences des événements sont devenues la source du savoir et de la révélation permanentes: "Dis: allez par terre et regardez comment Il a commencé la création" (L'Araignée: 20). En contrepartie de la fin de l'ère des prophètes, les activistes religieux et les intellectuels assument la mission de la réforme, mission qui constitue, je le pense, l'objectif de votre conférence. Selon ma compréhension, le Coran aborde, de trois aspects, cette question objet de la conférence et ce, à travers trois récits: *Le premier récit est celui de l'homme et de la corruption. *Le 2ème récit est celui de la responsabilité. *Le 3ème récit est celui de la non-violence et de la raison. Quiconque veut comprendre ces récits comme des vérités historiques peut le faire, mais qui y voit des récits symboliques peut le faire également sans le moindre inconvénient. C qui compte c'est de s'arrêter sur ses visées : 1- Les anges s'opposèrent à la création de l'homme au premier instant de la création: "Ils dirent: vous y créez celui qui y sème la corruption et fait couler le sang ?" Dieu répond: "Je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Comme l'Histoire nous le fait savoir, le texte trace l'horizon vers lequel l'homme se meut. Il commence par la corruption et l'effusion du sang, mais la ligne de l'évolution et la direction du progrès sont celles de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Si, selon les prévisions des anges, les hommes ne savent aujourd'hui que faire couler le sang et mener des guerres et des conflits, autrement dit, s'ils ne concrétisent pas encore la science de Dieu, nous observons dans l'Histoire ce que nous lisons dans le livre, à savoir que l'homme fait se pas en direction de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas" (La Génisse: 30). 2- Dans le 2ème récit, le Coran parle d'Adam et de sa femme à qui Dieu recommanda: "n'approchez pas cet arbre" Mais ils rompirent leur pacte en mangeant de cet arbre prohibé. Toutefois, lorsque leur Seigneur les appela "ne vous ai-je pas interdit (d'approcher) cet arbre" leur réponse fut: "Seigneur, nous avons commis une injustice envers nous-mêmes" Ils reconnurent leur faute et assumèrent la responsabilité de leur acte. Nous pouvons lire dans cela une réplique à l'accusation des anges contenue dans le premier texte. Cette réponse trace les traits de la voie de Dieu, celle du progrès de l'homme dans l'Histoire. Cette réponse est contraire celle de Satan qui justifia sa désobéissance; tantôt par des arguments racistes "je suis meilleur que lui", tantôt par des arguments philosophiques "puisque vous m'avez égaré" La morale du récit consiste en ceci: innocenter soi –même en accusant autrui ne constitue pas une solution du problème, mais une déviation de la voie de sa solution. Cette dernière réside dans l'accusation de soi-même. Hélas, les hommes suivent, jusqu'à nos jours, la doctrine de Satan, à savoir s'innocenter et accuser autrui. Ils ne suivent pas celle d'Adam accusant soi –même, doctrine que soutiennent les lois de l'Histoire, les faits de la vie et la méthodologie du Coran: "ce qui t'atteint comme mal il vient de toi-même" (Les Femmes: 79). 3- Dans le dernier récit, celui des deux fils d'Adam, le fils qui échoua dit à l'autre qui gagna: "je te tuerai". Il l'accusa d'être la cause de son échec au lieu de s'en accuser lui-même. Il trouva dans le meurtre une solution. Mais celui qui prit conscience de son humanité et sut découvrir la grâce de Dieu dans le cerveau dont il l'a doué refusa de tomber dans le monde bas des muscles. Reconnaissant la grâce de la raison, il répondit: "si tu me tends la main pour me tuer je ne tendrai pas à toi pour te tuer, je crains Dieu, Seigneur des univers"(La Table: 27-28). Il refusa obstinément et avec un haut sens de responsabilité de participer au meurtre, prenant conscience du fait qu'il disposait d'un nouveau pouvoir, celui de la raison qu'il devait désormais utiliser. Il inaugura une nouvelle ère et réalisa un nouveau bond dans l'Histoire et dans la conscience humaine. Ainsi, l'Histoire ne commença pas par le meurtre ou le crime, mais par une action humaine, celle de la non-violence. Il refusa le meurtre, l'effusion de sang et la défense de soi . L'Histoire a inscrit à maintes reprises ce martyre dont le plus évident fut Socrate bravant et acceptant la mort pour ne pas arrêter son dialogue avec sa raison. Il ne renonça pas à son devoir ou à sa responsabilité. La morale de ces récits réside dans la confiance dans l'homme et dans son avenir, dans l'affirmation de son aptitude à construire la terre, dans la foi dans sa capacité à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à consolider la justice et ce, par la prise de conscience par les hommes en général et par les intellectuels en particulier de leur responsabilité historiques. C'est pourquoi ils ne doivent pas attendre un sauveur, car ils sont tous des sauveurs selon la voie de Dieu et la voie du Fils d'Adam; celle du respect de la raison. Un tel respect signifie automatiquement que l'on accuse soi-même et que l'on emprunte la voie de la non-violence. Croire dans la raison comme méthode de résolution des problèmes signifie l'exclusion de la violence ou le meurtre. ==Unifier Dieu est la justice== Selon le Coran, la justice est le point de départ de la nouvelle théologie qui est celle de l'unification de dieu. Unifier celui qui est au ciel n'est pas une question métaphysique mais une question sociopolitique. Cela veut dire qu'il n'y a pas de dieux humains sur terre. Tant qu'il y a des privilèges dans le monde il n'y aura ni paix ni préservation des vies humaines, mais misère d'un côté et inquiétude de l'autre, misère et souffrances chez la majorité de la population de la planète et crainte et anxiété chez la minorité riche. Tout le monde végète dans l'enfer de la peur que ce soit pour gagner son pain ou pour préserver ses privilèges. Selon le Coran, l'objectif de l'envoi des prophètes était que" les hommes se comporte en justice" (Le Fer m 25). C'est qu'explique le verset de l'égalité: "Venez à un mot d'égalité….." (Famille d'Imran m 64) dans une allusion claire au fait que l'unification de Dieu au ciel signifie l'égalité des hommes sur terre. Cette conception de l'unicité et de la justice rend l'idéalisme réaliste, le métaphysique physique, le divin humain et le surnaturel naturel. La religion devient-elle une science. Vous discutez aujourd'hui du rôle des religieux dans les zones des conflits. Je dis que toute la terre est une zone de conflits. Les conflits régionaux et la corruption régionale participent de la grande corruption à l'ONU. Les privilèges que les Grands veulent maintenir sont la source de tous les maux. Il n'y aura ni sécurité ni paix sur terre tant que la justice restera un choix exclus pour la résolution des conflits, tant que nous ferons le culte de la force et tant que nous resterons silencieux au Conseil de sécurité à l'égard du droit au veto qui entrave le développement du monde: "nous n'avons détruit les villes que parce que leurs habitant furent injustes" (Les récits: 59). Je me demande si le nazisme et le fascisme avaient remporté la victoire à la guerre auraient-ils pu créer une instance pire que l'ONU. Hitler et MOUSSILINI auraient-ils fait autre chose que de donner à eux-mêmes et au Japon le droit ay veto ? L'ordre international sous lequel nous vivons aujourd'hui consacre la loi de la jungle. Il est imposé par la force des vainqueurs de la 2ème guerre mondiale. L'ONU est un temple où sont adorées les idoles de la force. C'est une feuille qui ne cache pas mais montre plutôt la nudité de l'humanité. Comment prêcher les droits de l'homme et la démocratie tout en approuvant un principe contraire à la démocratie, aux droits de l'homme et à l'humanité ? Quiconque le fait ressemble à celui qui voit la paille dans l'œil d'autrui et ne voit pas la poutre dans le sien. Passer au silence l'injustice et la corruption constitue une hypocrisie politique, religieuse et culturelle. Or, l'Histoire nous apprend que les privilégiés ne renoncent pas volontairement à leurs privilèges. Une telle analyse me procure une grande satisfaction, d'autant plus qu'elle repose sur l'Histoire, la parole des prophètes et les faits de la vie. Je prêche une parole d'égalité que le Coran définit comme suit: "que nous ne sous prenions pas pour des dieux les uns les autres" (Famille d'Imran: 64). Cela veut dire que nul ne doit être au-dessus de la loi, car si c'est le cas ce sera l'idolâtrie, ce péché que impardonnable et cette grande injustice qui fait échouer toutes les actions et avec quoi mêmes mes bonnes actions sont inutiles. C'est-là la source de tous les malheurs de l'Histoire. Qu'il entende celui qui a des oreilles! Nous nous devons de rénover le monde et de rénover ses principes. Les principes de militaires ainsi que le culte de la force ne sauraient produire qu'un monde malade et en crise, comme celui auquel nous assistons, un monde où le dernier mot est au à la force, un monde où prévaut l'injustice, un monde gouverné par le droit au veto,( cet héritage romain qui coupe court avec la modernité) et qui constitue une violation permanente et flagrante des principes des droits de l'homme et reste un alibi pour les petits tyrans du tiers-monde. Ce que l'on peut inscrire en faveur des Européens c'est qu'ils ont créé non seulement des moyens de transport et de diffusion des informations, mais également un moyen de passation du pouvoir autre que celui du meurtre et de l'héritage. Un moyen qui respecte la raison humaine, fait revivifier le sens de la légalité, donne une valeur au choix des hommes, exactement comme le pratiquait MOHAMMED au VIIème siècle. Je répète toujours que l'homme est la plus grande création de Dieu et que la démocratie est la plus grande création de l'homme. L'essence de cette démocratie réside dans le fait que tous les hommes croient dans la nécessité de ne pas recourir à la violence dans le règlement des problèmes mais à la conviction et aux urnes. La démocratie est une nouvelle création; elle évolue pour le meilleur. La démocratisation du monde est le défi à relever par les intellectuels et les hommes politiques afin de rendre le monde plus sûr et rende tous les hommes plus tranquilles. O monde des Grande, vous resterez dans la nullité jusqu'à ce que vous accepteriez que l'ONU devienne un forum démocratique ayant trois instances: législative, exécutive et juridique. C'est à ce moment-là que nous dirons que le concept de légalité est consolidé, que la justice et la paix prévalent et que les vœux de tous les prophètes sont exaucés. ==Les signes des horizons et des âmes et l'Histoire comme référence== "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs âmes afin qu'ils puissent connaître qu'il est la vérité. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit témoin de toute chose?" (L'Articulation: 53) "Dis: allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs" (les Troupeaux: 11) "Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas: 39) Le Coran utilise les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes, comme des témoins justes qui ne sauraient être accusés de partialité et de parti pris. Quiconque puisse défendre sa cause par les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes réunit les conditions de sa validation. Ainsi, son argumentation sortira-t-elle du monde de l'inconnaissable pour entrer dans celui du connaissable. Selon le Coran, l'Histoire devient ainsi arbitre et source de compréhension du comportement humain: "des précédents sont déjà passés avant vous, allez par terre et regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs (Famille d'Imran: 137) Il s'agit l) d'un principe coranique qui exige de nous de regarder le passé et de l'étudier. C'est une langue que nul ne peut nier, que ce soit dans les signes sur les horizons (ceux du monde extérieur) ou ceux dans les âmes (ceux du comportement humain). Le Coran dit: "N'as-tu pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers Ad, envers ceux de Thamoud qui affouillaient la roche dans le val, envers Pharaon; maître des pilastres. Ils commettaient l'outrance dans le monde, ils n'y faisaient qu'accroître la corruption; alors ton Seigneur sur eux déversa le fouet du supplice. Oui, ton Seigneur est aux aguets" (L'Aube: 6-14)/ C'est une loi immuable qui ne saurait changer . Ainsi pourrons-nous trouver un guide dans cette manière de voir les choses; nous pourrions dire: n'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers l'URSS qui tomba de l'intérieur en disposant d'armes capables de détruire le globe ? N'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa votre Seigneur envers Hitler et Napoléon. Je ne suis pas intéressé par l'énumération des malheurs et des événements; je suis plutôt intéressé de prouver le principe de la référence de l'Histoire. Sur ce point, je dois m'arrêter pour dire que l'évolution a mené l'homme malgré lui à la démocratie qui signifie la raison, la conviction et la paix. En vertu de cette vision, j'avais annoncé la mort de la guerre avec la première explosion nucléaire. Les Grands ne sont plus capables de faire la guerre. Ils utilisent l'ignorance des ignorants, voire l'exploitent en leur vendant des armes. Les guerres offrent l'occasion de faire des sacrifices humains. Le meurtre n'a jamais été une solution des problèmes. Au contraire, il n'a fait qu'aggraver les problèmes. C'est la leçon tirée de l'Histoire. Selon cette vision, l'Union européenne est une concrétisation du mot d'égalité. Elle est la plus grande réalisation de la raison humaine. Les européens ont cru dans ce qu'il y a de plus sacré dans les religions, à savoir ne pas se prendre pour de dieux les uns les autres, au moins parmi eux. Ils se sont débarrassés de Napoléon et d'Hitler. C'est leur culture qui l'a créé, ce n'était pas un don du ciel. C'était le fruit des souffrances. Ce n'était ni Napoléon ni Hitler ni la force ni la contrainte qui l'ont fait, mais la raison humaine, cette créature de Dieu qui a su comprendre la leçon de l'Histoire après avoir expérimenté tant de guerre, celles des cent ans, des trente ans, des guerres de religions et des guerres mondiales où elle fait sacrifice de centaines de millions de victimes. Cette Union ne croitra pas par la conquête ou l'annexion militaire mais avec l'approbation de toutes les parties en calculant bénéfices et intérêts sur la base de cette règle: personne ne perdra rien et tous y gagneront. C'est une conquête volontaire à telle point que les pays qui désirent y adhérer crient: admettez-nous et nous acceptons toutes vos les conditions. C'est grande conquête évidente. Certes, vous n'avez pas unifié le monde mais cette manière de s'unir peut obtenir l'unanimité du monde. C'est une chose la plus proche de la religion de Dieu, de ses envoyés et de la nature de l'humanité. C'est un nouveau fait parmi tous ce que les hommes ont expérimenté. ==Conclusion== Le monde d'ici-bas n'a ni commencé ni pris fin chez nous. Il y a dix mille ans seulement; l'homme vivait nu dans les cavernes mangeant de la chaire de son frère,. Cette période des débuts de l'humanité ressemble aux premières années de l'enfant qui ne pouvait même pas se nettoyer. Il n'y a pas de honte là-dessus, mais honte il y a lorsqu'il reste ainsi en âge de majorité! Elle est une honte pour les intellectuels de voir les hommes se tuer les uns les autres. Notre existence dans ce monde n'est ni absurdité ni nullité, le bonheur de l'homme découle de son action servant une cause juste. La plus grande mission à s'atteler consiste à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à l'effusion de sang. L'ère des prophètes a pris fin et la responsabilité est passée aux tenants de la science qui doivent faire sortir les hommes des ténèbres vers la lumière, c'est vers "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Les plus proches de Dieu sont ceux qui rendent le plus de services à leurs frères, les hommes. Les prophètes sont venus pour amener les hommes à faire à se devancer les uns les autres dans l'accomplissement des bonnes actions. Faisons la concurrence dans la manière d'édifier la paix mondiale et dans la manière de construire une société mondiale où les hommes deviennent égaux devant la loi. Ainsi réaliserons-nous la volonté de Dieu et les vœux des prophètes. Gloire à Dieu dans les lieux très-hauts; et sur la terre, paix; et bon plaisir dans les hommes! Mai être là gloire pour Dieu au-dessus, l'amour pour les gens et la paix sur Terre. Mai la paix, la miséricorde et l'abondance soient sur vous. Jawdat Said Mohamed Syrie - Beer Ajam Tél: +963 14 444 00 13 E-mail: Jawdatsaid@gmail.com Page Web: www.jawdatsaid.net/en ==Footnotes== - Santiago Genovic, documents de la conférence de Venise le 17 mars 1986/ - Je donne souvent cet exemple, car il explique la possibilité de tomber dans l'erreur dans l'appréciation des choses les plus évidentes et simples. Les hommes sont disposés à mourir pour défendre de fausses conceptions et à envoyer les autres à la mort. Si le soleil, qui sert d'exemple pour les choses évidentes, devient un exemple pour les choses cachées, et si les hommes sont à ce point capables de tomber dans l'erreur pendant des milliers d'années, que peut-on dire des conceptions et des interprétations pour lesquelles nous n'admettrons point d'erreur au point de nous permettre d'envoyer les gens à la mort ? - Parmi les versets qui les soulignent, il y a "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs âmes afin qu'ils puissent connaître qu'il est la vérité. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit témoin de toute chose ?" (L'Articulation : 53)/ "Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des criminels" (les Redans : 88) " Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des corrupteurs" (les Redans : 86)/"Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas : 39). Dans l'Evangile de MT : 16: 7 : " De leurs fruits vous les reconnaitrez; récolteront-ils des raisins des épines et des figues des os des poissons ? " -"Il accroit dans la création ce qu'il veut…" (Créateur : 1) et "…Et les chevaux, les mulets et les ânes pour les monter et pour l'apparat et il crée d'autres chose que vous ne savez pas" (L es Abeilles : 8) - Etant donné que l'objectif essentiel du message des prophètes était que les hommes mettent en œuvre la justice, conformément au verset : 'Nous avons envoyé nos envoyés avec des preuves évidentes et nous avons fait descendre avec eux l'Ecriture et la balance pour que les hommes mettent en œuvre la justice…' (Le Fer m 25); les privilégiés ont visé ces prophètes par le meurtre. C'est pourquoi Dieu leur a fait joindre ceux qui ordonnent la justice : "ceux qui dénient les signes de Dieu et tuent les prophètes à contre vérité, et tuent ceux des humains qui ordonnent la justice annonce-leur un châtiment douloureux…" (Famille d'Imran : 21) Mais le témoignage de l'unicité de Dieu et de la justice vient des gens de science sans citer les prophètes : "Dieu témoigne qu'il n'est de dieu que Lui (comme en témoignent) aussi les anges et les gens de sciences (et c'est là de Sa part) accomplir la justice" (Famille d'Imran : 18) - Lorsque je puise dans le Coran, je ne fais pas pour imposer à celui qui m'entend ma foi dans le Coran. La vérité du propos ne tient pas à celui qui la dit, mais à sa crédibilité dans la réalité. Je suis étonné du peu d'intérêt qu'accordent les modernistes à des illustrations puisées dans le Coran ou dans les autres livres saints. Supposez ce que vous voulez; n'est-ce pas là des propos sur lesquels s'appliquent les fruits des idées des hommes que l'on accepte de s'y puiser, à tire d'illustration. -Nous devons souligner ici que le Coran avait ordonné aux musulmans de s'abstenir de se défendre : "Retenez vos mains et accomplissez la prière" (Les Femmes : 77). Ensuite, il les invita à pratiquer un type rare de désobéissance : 'Ne lui obéit pas et prosterne-toi…" l'Adhérence : 19). Pour sa part, le Prophète prêcha l'observation de la méthode du Fils tué d'Adam dans les circonstances de troubles et de perte de la légalité, il dit "sois comme le meilleur des deux fils d'Adam. Si tu crains que la lumière de ton sabre ne t'en enivre jette sur ton visage ta tenue". Il leur interdit de se défendre, car il voulait édifier une société de légalité. Celle-ci ne se réalise ni par la violence ni par la force. L'individu dans une société légale est protégé par la société et les instances de cette société. Si l'individu doit se protéger lui-même ce sera la loi de la jungle. En optant pour la violence, BEN LADEN puise dans le patrimoine et les idées de la révolution française prônant le droit des peuples à résister contre les colonisateurs et les occupants par tous les moyens. Il n'opte pas pour la méthode des prophètes en matière de réforme et de changement (voir deux livres de l'auteur : "Sois comme le fils d'Adam" et "La religion et la loi"). - Dans le Coran : 'Dis : Gens du Livre, vous êtes dans la nullité tant que vous n'appliquez pas la Torah et l'Evangile et la révélation sur vous descendue de votre Seigneur…" (La Table : 68) - Dans le Coran : "Telle fut la loi de Dieu à l'égard des révolus, la loi de Dieu nul ne saura la changer" (Les Coalisés : 62) 162 2009-12-17T09:15:03Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010 "Le rôle des acteurs religieux dans la construction de la paix et de la démocratie" Jawdat Said Mohamed Louange à Dieu et paix...' wikitext text/x-wiki Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010 "Le rôle des acteurs religieux dans la construction de la paix et de la démocratie" Jawdat Said Mohamed Louange à Dieu et paix sur ses serviteurs qu'il a élus ainsi que sur ceux qui ordonnent la justice ==Introduction== J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. Le titre du livre "Jusqu'ils changent ce qu'il y a dans leurs âmes" était une partie d'un texte coranique. La thèse y était que la crise a lieu dans la pensée avant de l'être dans la réalité. La crise commence chez le penseur avant de se manifester chez l'homme politique. Le monde est en crise parce que le penseur est en crise. Cela s'applique à toutes les crises du monde: celles de l'environnement, du climat, de l'alimentation, de l'économie, de la coexistence et de toutes sortes de conflits et de guerres. Toutes les crises ont une seule source, celle de la crise des idées. La thèse de ce livre reste d'actualité. Les idées et les penseurs sont à l'origine de la crise, que ce soit dans celles qu'ils expriment ou celles qu'ils n'expriment pas. C'est pourquoi il est une grande falsification que les intellectuels s'y présentent comme "sauveurs". Ils doivent plutôt s'y présenter comme repentants. Ils doivent y assister pour opérer une révision de leurs idées et une reconsidération radicale de leurs racines. Malheureusement, le rôle de l'intellectuel manifeste deux grandes anomalies: - Soit dans sa compréhension et dans sa conscience qui est en deçà de l'histoire. Il est incapable de se faire une vision actualisée du monde reposant sur l'histoire et prospectant l'avenir. Une vision qui lui permettrait de fournir aux hommes politiques des conseils utiles et justes susceptibles de changer la vocation de ce monde producteur de crises. - Soit, il est tacitement compromis, satisfait qu'il est des privilèges égoïstes que leur procurent les situations en place. Ces privilèges l'amènent à fermer les yeux sur ce qui se passe dans le monde et à présenter aux hommes politiques qui leur demandent conseils ce qu'ils veulent faire et non ce qu'ils doivent faire . Cette compromission est, selon PIERRE BOURDIEU, est la principale cause de la situation dans la quelle nous sommes. Aujourd'hui, je sens qu'il est de mon devoir de présenter mon point de vue comme observateur de ce monde tourmenté dans lequel se confondent intérêts et pertes. Un monde où le cinquième de l'humanité jouit de savoir, de richesse et de privilèges alors que vivent dans la misère et la corruption les quatre cinquièmes. Je tenterai, ici, d'expliquer une situation humaine difficile, non parce qu'elle est confuse mais parce qu'elle est très claire, voire évidente. Toutefois, cette évidence est semblable à notre vision de la position du soleil par rapport à la terre. Les hommes croyaient pendant longtemps que le soleil tournait autour de la terre. Il s'est avéré que c'est nous qui tournons autour du soleil. Nous envisageons bien des choses évidentes par une telle confusion. L'objet de cette recherche fait partie de ces choses à la fois claires et confuses. Dans le monde que nous vivons aujourd'hui, une faible minorité blanche ne représentant pas plus de 20% de l'humanité jouit de 80% des richesses mondiales, alors que celles des 20% reculent à moins de 1,4%. Dans chaque société, les richesses sont partagées de la même façon. L'actuel ordre international est presque consacré à maintenir ce partage et à garantir ces privilèges. ==L'homme, la corruption et l'effusion de sang sont, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, le problème des et la raison pour laquelle nous sommes réunis! == Ayant foi dans la raison et dans la révélation; lisant les signes de Dieu dans l'univers et dans le livre, suivant de près ce qui se passe dans le monde, je donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements ; faisant le tour du texte et de la réalité; vivant la dialectique entre révélation et histoire, je trouve que le Coran me rend facile l'accès à une telle recherche, car il donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements et annonce que l'univers connaît une création et une évolution permanentes. Cette évolution va dans le sens du meilleur. Le Coran affirme le scellement des prophéties, la fermeture de la porte du ciel et la fin de l'ère des prophètes en faveur de l'avènement de celle de la raison humaine et ce, lorsque "ceux qui ordonnent la justice" parmi les intellectuels assument la fonction de prophètes . En contrepartie de la fermeture de la porte du ciel, le Coran ouvre la porte de la terre. L'Histoire et les conséquences des événements sont devenues la source du savoir et de la révélation permanentes: "Dis: allez par terre et regardez comment Il a commencé la création" (L'Araignée: 20). En contrepartie de la fin de l'ère des prophètes, les activistes religieux et les intellectuels assument la mission de la réforme, mission qui constitue, je le pense, l'objectif de votre conférence. Selon ma compréhension, le Coran aborde, de trois aspects, cette question objet de la conférence et ce, à travers trois récits: *Le premier récit est celui de l'homme et de la corruption. *Le 2ème récit est celui de la responsabilité. *Le 3ème récit est celui de la non-violence et de la raison. Quiconque veut comprendre ces récits comme des vérités historiques peut le faire, mais qui y voit des récits symboliques peut le faire également sans le moindre inconvénient. C qui compte c'est de s'arrêter sur ses visées : 1- Les anges s'opposèrent à la création de l'homme au premier instant de la création: "Ils dirent: vous y créez celui qui y sème la corruption et fait couler le sang ?" Dieu répond: "Je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Comme l'Histoire nous le fait savoir, le texte trace l'horizon vers lequel l'homme se meut. Il commence par la corruption et l'effusion du sang, mais la ligne de l'évolution et la direction du progrès sont celles de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Si, selon les prévisions des anges, les hommes ne savent aujourd'hui que faire couler le sang et mener des guerres et des conflits, autrement dit, s'ils ne concrétisent pas encore la science de Dieu, nous observons dans l'Histoire ce que nous lisons dans le livre, à savoir que l'homme fait se pas en direction de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas" (La Génisse: 30). 2- Dans le 2ème récit, le Coran parle d'Adam et de sa femme à qui Dieu recommanda: "n'approchez pas cet arbre" Mais ils rompirent leur pacte en mangeant de cet arbre prohibé. Toutefois, lorsque leur Seigneur les appela "ne vous ai-je pas interdit (d'approcher) cet arbre" leur réponse fut: "Seigneur, nous avons commis une injustice envers nous-mêmes" Ils reconnurent leur faute et assumèrent la responsabilité de leur acte. Nous pouvons lire dans cela une réplique à l'accusation des anges contenue dans le premier texte. Cette réponse trace les traits de la voie de Dieu, celle du progrès de l'homme dans l'Histoire. Cette réponse est contraire celle de Satan qui justifia sa désobéissance; tantôt par des arguments racistes "je suis meilleur que lui", tantôt par des arguments philosophiques "puisque vous m'avez égaré" La morale du récit consiste en ceci: innocenter soi –même en accusant autrui ne constitue pas une solution du problème, mais une déviation de la voie de sa solution. Cette dernière réside dans l'accusation de soi-même. Hélas, les hommes suivent, jusqu'à nos jours, la doctrine de Satan, à savoir s'innocenter et accuser autrui. Ils ne suivent pas celle d'Adam accusant soi –même, doctrine que soutiennent les lois de l'Histoire, les faits de la vie et la méthodologie du Coran: "ce qui t'atteint comme mal il vient de toi-même" (Les Femmes: 79). 3- Dans le dernier récit, celui des deux fils d'Adam, le fils qui échoua dit à l'autre qui gagna: "je te tuerai". Il l'accusa d'être la cause de son échec au lieu de s'en accuser lui-même. Il trouva dans le meurtre une solution. Mais celui qui prit conscience de son humanité et sut découvrir la grâce de Dieu dans le cerveau dont il l'a doué refusa de tomber dans le monde bas des muscles. Reconnaissant la grâce de la raison, il répondit: "si tu me tends la main pour me tuer je ne tendrai pas à toi pour te tuer, je crains Dieu, Seigneur des univers"(La Table: 27-28). Il refusa obstinément et avec un haut sens de responsabilité de participer au meurtre, prenant conscience du fait qu'il disposait d'un nouveau pouvoir, celui de la raison qu'il devait désormais utiliser. Il inaugura une nouvelle ère et réalisa un nouveau bond dans l'Histoire et dans la conscience humaine. Ainsi, l'Histoire ne commença pas par le meurtre ou le crime, mais par une action humaine, celle de la non-violence. Il refusa le meurtre, l'effusion de sang et la défense de soi . L'Histoire a inscrit à maintes reprises ce martyre dont le plus évident fut Socrate bravant et acceptant la mort pour ne pas arrêter son dialogue avec sa raison. Il ne renonça pas à son devoir ou à sa responsabilité. La morale de ces récits réside dans la confiance dans l'homme et dans son avenir, dans l'affirmation de son aptitude à construire la terre, dans la foi dans sa capacité à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à consolider la justice et ce, par la prise de conscience par les hommes en général et par les intellectuels en particulier de leur responsabilité historiques. C'est pourquoi ils ne doivent pas attendre un sauveur, car ils sont tous des sauveurs selon la voie de Dieu et la voie du Fils d'Adam; celle du respect de la raison. Un tel respect signifie automatiquement que l'on accuse soi-même et que l'on emprunte la voie de la non-violence. Croire dans la raison comme méthode de résolution des problèmes signifie l'exclusion de la violence ou le meurtre. ==Unifier Dieu est la justice== Selon le Coran, la justice est le point de départ de la nouvelle théologie qui est celle de l'unification de dieu. Unifier celui qui est au ciel n'est pas une question métaphysique mais une question sociopolitique. Cela veut dire qu'il n'y a pas de dieux humains sur terre. Tant qu'il y a des privilèges dans le monde il n'y aura ni paix ni préservation des vies humaines, mais misère d'un côté et inquiétude de l'autre, misère et souffrances chez la majorité de la population de la planète et crainte et anxiété chez la minorité riche. Tout le monde végète dans l'enfer de la peur que ce soit pour gagner son pain ou pour préserver ses privilèges. Selon le Coran, l'objectif de l'envoi des prophètes était que" les hommes se comporte en justice" (Le Fer m 25). C'est qu'explique le verset de l'égalité: "Venez à un mot d'égalité….." (Famille d'Imran m 64) dans une allusion claire au fait que l'unification de Dieu au ciel signifie l'égalité des hommes sur terre. Cette conception de l'unicité et de la justice rend l'idéalisme réaliste, le métaphysique physique, le divin humain et le surnaturel naturel. La religion devient-elle une science. Vous discutez aujourd'hui du rôle des religieux dans les zones des conflits. Je dis que toute la terre est une zone de conflits. Les conflits régionaux et la corruption régionale participent de la grande corruption à l'ONU. Les privilèges que les Grands veulent maintenir sont la source de tous les maux. Il n'y aura ni sécurité ni paix sur terre tant que la justice restera un choix exclus pour la résolution des conflits, tant que nous ferons le culte de la force et tant que nous resterons silencieux au Conseil de sécurité à l'égard du droit au veto qui entrave le développement du monde: "nous n'avons détruit les villes que parce que leurs habitant furent injustes" (Les récits: 59). Je me demande si le nazisme et le fascisme avaient remporté la victoire à la guerre auraient-ils pu créer une instance pire que l'ONU. Hitler et MOUSSILINI auraient-ils fait autre chose que de donner à eux-mêmes et au Japon le droit ay veto ? L'ordre international sous lequel nous vivons aujourd'hui consacre la loi de la jungle. Il est imposé par la force des vainqueurs de la 2ème guerre mondiale. L'ONU est un temple où sont adorées les idoles de la force. C'est une feuille qui ne cache pas mais montre plutôt la nudité de l'humanité. Comment prêcher les droits de l'homme et la démocratie tout en approuvant un principe contraire à la démocratie, aux droits de l'homme et à l'humanité ? Quiconque le fait ressemble à celui qui voit la paille dans l'œil d'autrui et ne voit pas la poutre dans le sien. Passer au silence l'injustice et la corruption constitue une hypocrisie politique, religieuse et culturelle. Or, l'Histoire nous apprend que les privilégiés ne renoncent pas volontairement à leurs privilèges. Une telle analyse me procure une grande satisfaction, d'autant plus qu'elle repose sur l'Histoire, la parole des prophètes et les faits de la vie. Je prêche une parole d'égalité que le Coran définit comme suit: "que nous ne sous prenions pas pour des dieux les uns les autres" (Famille d'Imran: 64). Cela veut dire que nul ne doit être au-dessus de la loi, car si c'est le cas ce sera l'idolâtrie, ce péché que impardonnable et cette grande injustice qui fait échouer toutes les actions et avec quoi mêmes mes bonnes actions sont inutiles. C'est-là la source de tous les malheurs de l'Histoire. Qu'il entende celui qui a des oreilles! Nous nous devons de rénover le monde et de rénover ses principes. Les principes de militaires ainsi que le culte de la force ne sauraient produire qu'un monde malade et en crise, comme celui auquel nous assistons, un monde où le dernier mot est au à la force, un monde où prévaut l'injustice, un monde gouverné par le droit au veto,( cet héritage romain qui coupe court avec la modernité) et qui constitue une violation permanente et flagrante des principes des droits de l'homme et reste un alibi pour les petits tyrans du tiers-monde. Ce que l'on peut inscrire en faveur des Européens c'est qu'ils ont créé non seulement des moyens de transport et de diffusion des informations, mais également un moyen de passation du pouvoir autre que celui du meurtre et de l'héritage. Un moyen qui respecte la raison humaine, fait revivifier le sens de la légalité, donne une valeur au choix des hommes, exactement comme le pratiquait MOHAMMED au VIIème siècle. Je répète toujours que l'homme est la plus grande création de Dieu et que la démocratie est la plus grande création de l'homme. L'essence de cette démocratie réside dans le fait que tous les hommes croient dans la nécessité de ne pas recourir à la violence dans le règlement des problèmes mais à la conviction et aux urnes. La démocratie est une nouvelle création; elle évolue pour le meilleur. La démocratisation du monde est le défi à relever par les intellectuels et les hommes politiques afin de rendre le monde plus sûr et rende tous les hommes plus tranquilles. O monde des Grande, vous resterez dans la nullité jusqu'à ce que vous accepteriez que l'ONU devienne un forum démocratique ayant trois instances: législative, exécutive et juridique. C'est à ce moment-là que nous dirons que le concept de légalité est consolidé, que la justice et la paix prévalent et que les vœux de tous les prophètes sont exaucés. ==Les signes des horizons et des âmes et l'Histoire comme référence== "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs âmes afin qu'ils puissent connaître qu'il est la vérité. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit témoin de toute chose?" (L'Articulation: 53) "Dis: allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs" (les Troupeaux: 11) "Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas: 39) Le Coran utilise les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes, comme des témoins justes qui ne sauraient être accusés de partialité et de parti pris. Quiconque puisse défendre sa cause par les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes réunit les conditions de sa validation. Ainsi, son argumentation sortira-t-elle du monde de l'inconnaissable pour entrer dans celui du connaissable. Selon le Coran, l'Histoire devient ainsi arbitre et source de compréhension du comportement humain: "des précédents sont déjà passés avant vous, allez par terre et regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs (Famille d'Imran: 137) Il s'agit l) d'un principe coranique qui exige de nous de regarder le passé et de l'étudier. C'est une langue que nul ne peut nier, que ce soit dans les signes sur les horizons (ceux du monde extérieur) ou ceux dans les âmes (ceux du comportement humain). Le Coran dit: "N'as-tu pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers Ad, envers ceux de Thamoud qui affouillaient la roche dans le val, envers Pharaon; maître des pilastres. Ils commettaient l'outrance dans le monde, ils n'y faisaient qu'accroître la corruption; alors ton Seigneur sur eux déversa le fouet du supplice. Oui, ton Seigneur est aux aguets" (L'Aube: 6-14)/ C'est une loi immuable qui ne saurait changer . Ainsi pourrons-nous trouver un guide dans cette manière de voir les choses; nous pourrions dire: n'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers l'URSS qui tomba de l'intérieur en disposant d'armes capables de détruire le globe ? N'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa votre Seigneur envers Hitler et Napoléon. Je ne suis pas intéressé par l'énumération des malheurs et des événements; je suis plutôt intéressé de prouver le principe de la référence de l'Histoire. Sur ce point, je dois m'arrêter pour dire que l'évolution a mené l'homme malgré lui à la démocratie qui signifie la raison, la conviction et la paix. En vertu de cette vision, j'avais annoncé la mort de la guerre avec la première explosion nucléaire. Les Grands ne sont plus capables de faire la guerre. Ils utilisent l'ignorance des ignorants, voire l'exploitent en leur vendant des armes. Les guerres offrent l'occasion de faire des sacrifices humains. Le meurtre n'a jamais été une solution des problèmes. Au contraire, il n'a fait qu'aggraver les problèmes. C'est la leçon tirée de l'Histoire. Selon cette vision, l'Union européenne est une concrétisation du mot d'égalité. Elle est la plus grande réalisation de la raison humaine. Les européens ont cru dans ce qu'il y a de plus sacré dans les religions, à savoir ne pas se prendre pour de dieux les uns les autres, au moins parmi eux. Ils se sont débarrassés de Napoléon et d'Hitler. C'est leur culture qui l'a créé, ce n'était pas un don du ciel. C'était le fruit des souffrances. Ce n'était ni Napoléon ni Hitler ni la force ni la contrainte qui l'ont fait, mais la raison humaine, cette créature de Dieu qui a su comprendre la leçon de l'Histoire après avoir expérimenté tant de guerre, celles des cent ans, des trente ans, des guerres de religions et des guerres mondiales où elle fait sacrifice de centaines de millions de victimes. Cette Union ne croitra pas par la conquête ou l'annexion militaire mais avec l'approbation de toutes les parties en calculant bénéfices et intérêts sur la base de cette règle: personne ne perdra rien et tous y gagneront. C'est une conquête volontaire à telle point que les pays qui désirent y adhérer crient: admettez-nous et nous acceptons toutes vos les conditions. C'est grande conquête évidente. Certes, vous n'avez pas unifié le monde mais cette manière de s'unir peut obtenir l'unanimité du monde. C'est une chose la plus proche de la religion de Dieu, de ses envoyés et de la nature de l'humanité. C'est un nouveau fait parmi tous ce que les hommes ont expérimenté. ==Conclusion== Le monde d'ici-bas n'a ni commencé ni pris fin chez nous. Il y a dix mille ans seulement; l'homme vivait nu dans les cavernes mangeant de la chaire de son frère,. Cette période des débuts de l'humanité ressemble aux premières années de l'enfant qui ne pouvait même pas se nettoyer. Il n'y a pas de honte là-dessus, mais honte il y a lorsqu'il reste ainsi en âge de majorité! Elle est une honte pour les intellectuels de voir les hommes se tuer les uns les autres. Notre existence dans ce monde n'est ni absurdité ni nullité, le bonheur de l'homme découle de son action servant une cause juste. La plus grande mission à s'atteler consiste à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à l'effusion de sang. L'ère des prophètes a pris fin et la responsabilité est passée aux tenants de la science qui doivent faire sortir les hommes des ténèbres vers la lumière, c'est vers "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Les plus proches de Dieu sont ceux qui rendent le plus de services à leurs frères, les hommes. Les prophètes sont venus pour amener les hommes à faire à se devancer les uns les autres dans l'accomplissement des bonnes actions. Faisons la concurrence dans la manière d'édifier la paix mondiale et dans la manière de construire une société mondiale où les hommes deviennent égaux devant la loi. Ainsi réaliserons-nous la volonté de Dieu et les vœux des prophètes. Gloire à Dieu dans les lieux très-hauts; et sur la terre, paix; et bon plaisir dans les hommes! Mai être là gloire pour Dieu au-dessus, l'amour pour les gens et la paix sur Terre. Mai la paix, la miséricorde et l'abondance soient sur vous. Jawdat Said Mohamed Syrie - Beer Ajam Tél: +963 14 444 00 13 E-mail: Jawdatsaid@gmail.com Page Web: www.jawdatsaid.net/en ==Footnotes== 0 60 160 159 2009-12-14T12:51:32Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010''' '''"Le rôle des acteurs religieux dans la construction''' '''de la paix et de la démocratie"''' Jawdat Said Mohamed Louange à Dieu et paix sur ses serviteurs qu'il a élus ainsi que sur ceux qui ordonnent la justice ==Introduction== J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. Le titre du livre "Jusqu'ils changent ce qu'il y a dans leurs âmes" était une partie d'un texte coranique. La thèse y était que la crise a lieu dans la pensée avant de l'être dans la réalité. La crise commence chez le penseur avant de se manifester chez l'homme politique. Le monde est en crise parce que le penseur est en crise. Cela s'applique à toutes les crises du monde: celles de l'environnement, du climat, de l'alimentation, de l'économie, de la coexistence et de toutes sortes de conflits et de guerres. Toutes les crises ont une seule source, celle de la crise des idées. La thèse de ce livre reste d'actualité. Les idées et les penseurs sont à l'origine de la crise, que ce soit dans celles qu'ils expriment ou celles qu'ils n'expriment pas. C'est pourquoi il est une grande falsification que les intellectuels s'y présentent comme "sauveurs". Ils doivent plutôt s'y présenter comme repentants. Ils doivent y assister pour opérer une révision de leurs idées et une reconsidération radicale de leurs racines. Malheureusement, le rôle de l'intellectuel manifeste deux grandes anomalies: - Soit dans sa compréhension et dans sa conscience qui est en deçà de l'histoire. Il est incapable de se faire une vision actualisée du monde reposant sur l'histoire et prospectant l'avenir. Une vision qui lui permettrait de fournir aux hommes politiques des conseils utiles et justes susceptibles de changer la vocation de ce monde producteur de crises. - Soit, il est tacitement compromis, satisfait qu'il est des privilèges égoïstes que leur procurent les situations en place. Ces privilèges l'amènent à fermer les yeux sur ce qui se passe dans le monde et à présenter aux hommes politiques qui leur demandent conseils ce qu'ils veulent faire et non ce qu'ils doivent faire [1]. Cette compromission est, selon PIERRE BOURDIEU, est la principale cause de la situation dans la quelle nous sommes. Aujourd'hui, je sens qu'il est de mon devoir de présenter mon point de vue comme observateur de ce monde tourmenté dans lequel se confondent intérêts et pertes. Un monde où le cinquième de l'humanité jouit de savoir, de richesse et de privilèges alors que vivent dans la misère et la corruption les quatre cinquièmes. Je tenterai, ici, d'expliquer une situation humaine difficile, non parce qu'elle est confuse mais parce qu'elle est très claire, voire évidente. Toutefois, cette évidence est semblable à notre vision de la position du soleil [2] par rapport à la terre. Les hommes croyaient pendant longtemps que le soleil tournait autour de la terre. Il s'est avéré que c'est nous qui tournons autour du soleil. Nous envisageons bien des choses évidentes par une telle confusion. L'objet de cette recherche fait partie de ces choses à la fois claires et confuses. Dans le monde que nous vivons aujourd'hui, une faible minorité blanche ne représentant pas plus de 20% de l'humanité jouit de 80% des richesses mondiales, alors que celles des 20% reculent à moins de 1,4%. Dans chaque société, les richesses sont partagées de la même façon. L'actuel ordre international est presque consacré à maintenir ce partage et à garantir ces privilèges. ==L'homme, la corruption et l'effusion de sang sont, jusqu'à aujourd'hui, le problème des et la raison pour laquelle nous sommes réunis!== Ayant foi dans la raison et dans la révélation; lisant les signes de Dieu dans l'univers et dans le livre, suivant de près ce qui se passe dans le monde, je donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements [3]; faisant le tour du texte et de la réalité; vivant la dialectique entre révélation et histoire, je trouve que le Coran me rend facile l'accès à une telle recherche, car il donne une grande valeur à l'histoire et aux conséquences des événements et annonce que l'univers connaît une création et une évolution permanentes. Cette évolution va dans le sens du meilleur. [4] Le Coran affirme le scellement des prophéties, la fermeture de la porte du ciel et la fin de l'ère des prophètes en faveur de l'avènement de celle de la raison humaine et ce, lorsque "ceux qui ordonnent la justice" parmi les intellectuels assument la fonction de prophètes [5]. En contrepartie de la fermeture de la porte du ciel, le Coran ouvre la porte de la terre. L'Histoire et les conséquences des événements sont devenues la source du savoir et de la révélation permanentes: "Dis: allez par terre et regardez comment Il a commencé la création" (L'Araignée: 20). En contrepartie de la fin de l'ère des prophètes, les activistes religieux et les intellectuels assument la mission de la réforme, mission qui constitue, je le pense, l'objectif de votre conférence. Selon ma compréhension, le Coran aborde, de trois aspects, cette question objet de la conférence et ce, à travers trois récits: *Le premier récit est celui de l'homme et de la corruption. *Le 2ème récit est celui de la responsabilité. *Le 3ème récit est celui de la non-violence et de la raison. Quiconque veut comprendre ces récits comme des vérités historiques peut le faire, mais qui y voit des récits symboliques peut le faire également sans le moindre inconvénient. C qui compte c'est de s'arrêter sur ses visées [6]: 1- Les anges s'opposèrent à la création de l'homme au premier instant de la création: "Ils dirent: vous y créez celui qui y sème la corruption et fait couler le sang ?" Dieu répond: "Je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Comme l'Histoire nous le fait savoir, le texte trace l'horizon vers lequel l'homme se meut. Il commence par la corruption et l'effusion du sang, mais la ligne de l'évolution et la direction du progrès sont celles de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Si, selon les prévisions des anges, les hommes ne savent aujourd'hui que faire couler le sang et mener des guerres et des conflits, autrement dit, s'ils ne concrétisent pas encore la science de Dieu, nous observons dans l'Histoire ce que nous lisons dans le livre, à savoir que l'homme fait se pas en direction de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas" (La Génisse: 30). 2- Dans le 2ème récit, le Coran parle d'Adam et de sa femme à qui Dieu recommanda: "n'approchez pas cet arbre" Mais ils rompirent leur pacte en mangeant de cet arbre prohibé. Toutefois, lorsque leur Seigneur les appela "ne vous ai-je pas interdit (d'approcher) cet arbre" leur réponse fut: "Seigneur, nous avons commis une injustice envers nous-mêmes" Ils reconnurent leur faute et assumèrent la responsabilité de leur acte. Nous pouvons lire dans cela une réplique à l'accusation des anges contenue dans le premier texte. Cette réponse trace les traits de la voie de Dieu, celle du progrès de l'homme dans l'Histoire. Cette réponse est contraire celle de Satan qui justifia sa désobéissance; tantôt par des arguments racistes "je suis meilleur que lui", tantôt par des arguments philosophiques "puisque vous m'avez égaré" La morale du récit consiste en ceci: innocenter soi –même en accusant autrui ne constitue pas une solution du problème, mais une déviation de la voie de sa solution. Cette dernière réside dans l'accusation de soi-même. Hélas, les hommes suivent, jusqu'à nos jours, la doctrine de Satan, à savoir s'innocenter et accuser autrui. Ils ne suivent pas celle d'Adam accusant soi –même, doctrine que soutiennent les lois de l'Histoire, les faits de la vie et la méthodologie du Coran: "ce qui t'atteint comme mal il vient de toi-même" (Les Femmes: 79). 3- Dans le dernier récit, celui des deux fils d'Adam, le fils qui échoua dit à l'autre qui gagna: "je te tuerai". Il l'accusa d'être la cause de son échec au lieu de s'en accuser lui-même. Il trouva dans le meurtre une solution. Mais celui qui prit conscience de son humanité et sut découvrir la grâce de Dieu dans le cerveau dont il l'a doué refusa de tomber dans le monde bas des muscles. Reconnaissant la grâce de la raison, il répondit: "si tu me tends la main pour me tuer je ne tendrai pas à toi pour te tuer, je crains Dieu, Seigneur des univers"(La Table: 27-28). Il refusa obstinément et avec un haut sens de responsabilité de participer au meurtre, prenant conscience du fait qu'il disposait d'un nouveau pouvoir, celui de la raison qu'il devait désormais utiliser. Il inaugura une nouvelle ère et réalisa un nouveau bond dans l'Histoire et dans la conscience humaine. Ainsi, l'Histoire ne commença pas par le meurtre ou le crime, mais par une action humaine, celle de la non-violence. Il refusa le meurtre, l'effusion de sang et la défense de soi [7]. L'Histoire a inscrit à maintes reprises ce martyre dont le plus évident fut Socrate bravant et acceptant la mort pour ne pas arrêter son dialogue avec sa raison. Il ne renonça pas à son devoir ou à sa responsabilité. La morale de ces récits réside dans la confiance dans l'homme et dans son avenir, dans l'affirmation de son aptitude à construire la terre, dans la foi dans sa capacité à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à consolider la justice et ce, par la prise de conscience par les hommes en général et par les intellectuels en particulier de leur responsabilité historiques. C'est pourquoi ils ne doivent pas attendre un sauveur, car ils sont tous des sauveurs selon la voie de Dieu et la voie du Fils d'Adam; celle du respect de la raison. Un tel respect signifie automatiquement que l'on accuse soi-même et que l'on emprunte la voie de la non-violence. Croire dans la raison comme méthode de résolution des problèmes signifie l'exclusion de la violence ou le meurtre. ==Unifier Dieu est la justice== Selon le Coran, la justice est le point de départ de la nouvelle théologie qui est celle de l'unification de dieu. Unifier celui qui est au ciel n'est pas une question métaphysique mais une question sociopolitique. Cela veut dire qu'il n'y a pas de dieux humains sur terre. Tant qu'il y a des privilèges dans le monde il n'y aura ni paix ni préservation des vies humaines, mais misère d'un côté et inquiétude de l'autre, misère et souffrances chez la majorité de la population de la planète et crainte et anxiété chez la minorité riche. Tout le monde végète dans l'enfer de la peur que ce soit pour gagner son pain ou pour préserver ses privilèges. Selon le Coran, l'objectif de l'envoi des prophètes était que" les hommes se comporte en justice" (Le Fer m 25). C'est qu'explique le verset de l'égalité: "Venez à un mot d'égalité….." (Famille d'Imran m 64) dans une allusion claire au fait que l'unification de Dieu au ciel signifie l'égalité des hommes sur terre. Cette conception de l'unicité et de la justice rend l'idéalisme réaliste, le métaphysique physique, le divin humain et le surnaturel naturel. La religion devient-elle une science. Vous discutez aujourd'hui du rôle des religieux dans les zones des conflits. Je dis que toute la terre est une zone de conflits. Les conflits régionaux et la corruption régionale participent de la grande corruption à l'ONU. Les privilèges que les Grands veulent maintenir sont la source de tous les maux. Il n'y aura ni sécurité ni paix sur terre tant que la justice restera un choix exclus pour la résolution des conflits, tant que nous ferons le culte de la force et tant que nous resterons silencieux au Conseil de sécurité à l'égard du droit au veto qui entrave le développement du monde: "nous n'avons détruit les villes que parce que leurs habitant furent injustes" (Les récits: 59). Je me demande si le nazisme et le fascisme avaient remporté la victoire à la guerre auraient-ils pu créer une instance pire que l'ONU. Hitler et MOUSSILINI auraient-ils fait autre chose que de donner à eux-mêmes et au Japon le droit ay veto ? L'ordre international sous lequel nous vivons aujourd'hui consacre la loi de la jungle. Il est imposé par la force des vainqueurs de la 2ème guerre mondiale. L'ONU est un temple où sont adorées les idoles de la force. C'est une feuille qui ne cache pas mais montre plutôt la nudité de l'humanité. Comment prêcher les droits de l'homme et la démocratie tout en approuvant un principe contraire à la démocratie, aux droits de l'homme et à l'humanité ? Quiconque le fait ressemble à celui qui voit la paille dans l'œil d'autrui et ne voit pas la poutre dans le sien. Passer au silence l'injustice et la corruption constitue une hypocrisie politique, religieuse et culturelle. Or, l'Histoire nous apprend que les privilégiés ne renoncent pas volontairement à leurs privilèges. Une telle analyse me procure une grande satisfaction, d'autant plus qu'elle repose sur l'Histoire, la parole des prophètes et les faits de la vie. Je prêche une parole d'égalité que le Coran définit comme suit: "que nous ne sous prenions pas pour des dieux les uns les autres" (Famille d'Imran: 64). Cela veut dire que nul ne doit être au-dessus de la loi, car si c'est le cas ce sera l'idolâtrie, ce péché que impardonnable et cette grande injustice qui fait échouer toutes les actions et avec quoi mêmes mes bonnes actions sont inutiles. C'est-là la source de tous les malheurs de l'Histoire. Qu'il entende celui qui a des oreilles! Nous nous devons de rénover le monde et de rénover ses principes. Les principes de militaires ainsi que le culte de la force ne sauraient produire qu'un monde malade et en crise, comme celui auquel nous assistons, un monde où le dernier mot est au à la force, un monde où prévaut l'injustice, un monde gouverné par le droit au veto,( cet héritage romain qui coupe court avec la modernité) et qui constitue une violation permanente et flagrante des principes des droits de l'homme et reste un alibi pour les petits tyrans du tiers-monde. Ce que l'on peut inscrire en faveur des Européens c'est qu'ils ont créé non seulement des moyens de transport et de diffusion des informations, mais également un moyen de passation du pouvoir autre que celui du meurtre et de l'héritage. Un moyen qui respecte la raison humaine, fait revivifier le sens de la légalité, donne une valeur au choix des hommes, exactement comme le pratiquait MOHAMMED au VIIème siècle. Je répète toujours que l'homme est la plus grande création de Dieu et que la démocratie est la plus grande création de l'homme. L'essence de cette démocratie réside dans le fait que tous les hommes croient dans la nécessité de ne pas recourir à la violence dans le règlement des problèmes mais à la conviction et aux urnes. La démocratie est une nouvelle création; elle évolue pour le meilleur. La démocratisation du monde est le défi à relever par les intellectuels et les hommes politiques afin de rendre le monde plus sûr et rende tous les hommes plus tranquilles. O monde des Grande, vous resterez dans la nullité [8] jusqu'à ce que vous accepteriez que l'ONU devienne un forum démocratique ayant trois instances: législative, exécutive et juridique. C'est à ce moment-là que nous dirons que le concept de légalité est consolidé, que la justice et la paix prévalent et que les vœux de tous les prophètes sont exaucés. Les signes des horizons et des âmes et l'Histoire comme référence "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs âmes afin qu'ils puissent connaître qu'il est la vérité. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit témoin de toute chose?" (L'Articulation: 53) "Dis: allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs" (les Troupeaux: 11) "Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas: 39) Le Coran utilise les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes, comme des témoins justes qui ne sauraient être accusés de partialité et de parti pris. Quiconque puisse défendre sa cause par les signes sur les horizons et dans les âmes réunit les conditions de sa validation. Ainsi, son argumentation sortira-t-elle du monde de l'inconnaissable pour entrer dans celui du connaissable. Selon le Coran, l'Histoire devient ainsi arbitre et source de compréhension du comportement humain: "des précédents sont déjà passés avant vous, allez par terre et regardez quelle fut la fin des dénégateurs (Famille d'Imran: 137) Il s'agit l) d'un principe coranique qui exige de nous de regarder le passé et de l'étudier. C'est une langue que nul ne peut nier, que ce soit dans les signes sur les horizons (ceux du monde extérieur) ou ceux dans les âmes (ceux du comportement humain). Le Coran dit: "N'as-tu pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers Ad, envers ceux de Thamoud qui affouillaient la roche dans le val, envers Pharaon; maître des pilastres. Ils commettaient l'outrance dans le monde, ils n'y faisaient qu'accroître la corruption; alors ton Seigneur sur eux déversa le fouet du supplice. Oui, ton Seigneur est aux aguets" (L'Aube: 6-14)/ C'est une loi immuable qui ne saurait changer [9]. Ainsi pourrons-nous trouver un guide dans cette manière de voir les choses; nous pourrions dire: n'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers l'URSS qui tomba de l'intérieur en disposant d'armes capables de détruire le globe ? N'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa votre Seigneur envers Hitler et Napoléon. Je ne suis pas intéressé par l'énumération des malheurs et des événements; je suis plutôt intéressé de prouver le principe de la référence de l'Histoire. Sur ce point, je dois m'arrêter pour dire que l'évolution a mené l'homme malgré lui à la démocratie qui signifie la raison, la conviction et la paix. En vertu de cette vision, j'avais annoncé la mort de la guerre avec la première explosion nucléaire. Les Grands ne sont plus capables de faire la guerre. Ils utilisent l'ignorance des ignorants, voire l'exploitent en leur vendant des armes. Les guerres offrent l'occasion de faire des sacrifices humains. Le meurtre n'a jamais été une solution des problèmes. Au contraire, il n'a fait qu'aggraver les problèmes. C'est la leçon tirée de l'Histoire. Selon cette vision, l'Union européenne est une concrétisation du mot d'égalité. Elle est la plus grande réalisation de la raison humaine. Les européens ont cru dans ce qu'il y a de plus sacré dans les religions, à savoir ne pas se prendre pour de dieux les uns les autres, au moins parmi eux. Ils se sont débarrassés de Napoléon et d'Hitler. C'est leur culture qui l'a créé, ce n'était pas un don du ciel. C'était le fruit des souffrances. Ce n'était ni Napoléon ni Hitler ni la force ni la contrainte qui l'ont fait, mais la raison humaine, cette créature de Dieu qui a su comprendre la leçon de l'Histoire après avoir expérimenté tant de guerre, celles des cent ans, des trente ans, des guerres de religions et des guerres mondiales où elle fait sacrifice de centaines de millions de victimes. Cette Union ne croitra pas par la conquête ou l'annexion militaire mais avec l'approbation de toutes les parties en calculant bénéfices et intérêts sur la base de cette règle: personne ne perdra rien et tous y gagneront. C'est une conquête volontaire à telle point que les pays qui désirent y adhérer crient: admettez-nous et nous acceptons toutes vos les conditions. C'est grande conquête évidente. Certes, vous n'avez pas unifié le monde mais cette manière de s'unir peut obtenir l'unanimité du monde. C'est une chose la plus proche de la religion de Dieu, de ses envoyés et de la nature de l'humanité. C'est un nouveau fait parmi tous ce que les hommes ont expérimenté. ==Conclusion== Le monde d'ici-bas n'a ni commencé ni pris fin chez nous. Il y a dix mille ans seulement; l'homme vivait nu dans les cavernes mangeant de la chaire de son frère,. Cette période des débuts de l'humanité ressemble aux premières années de l'enfant qui ne pouvait même pas se nettoyer. Il n'y a pas de honte là-dessus, mais honte il y a lorsqu'il reste ainsi en âge de majorité! Elle est une honte pour les intellectuels de voir les hommes se tuer les uns les autres. Notre existence dans ce monde n'est ni absurdité ni nullité, le bonheur de l'homme découle de son action servant une cause juste. La plus grande mission à s'atteler consiste à mettre un arrêt à la corruption et à l'effusion de sang. L'ère des prophètes a pris fin et la responsabilité est passée aux tenants de la science qui doivent faire sortir les hommes des ténèbres vers la lumière, c'est vers "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Les plus proches de Dieu sont ceux qui rendent le plus de services à leurs frères, les hommes. Les prophètes sont venus pour amener les hommes à faire à se devancer les uns les autres dans l'accomplissement des bonnes actions. Faisons la concurrence dans la manière d'édifier la paix mondiale et dans la manière de construire une société mondiale où les hommes deviennent égaux devant la loi. Ainsi réaliserons-nous la volonté de Dieu et les vœux des prophètes. Gloire à Dieu dans les lieux très-hauts; et sur la terre, paix; et bon plaisir dans les hommes! Mai être là gloire pour Dieu au-dessus, l'amour pour les gens et la paix sur Terre. Mai la paix, la miséricorde et l'abondance soient sur vous. Jawdat Said Mohamed Syrie - Beer Ajam ==Footnotes== 1 - Santiago Genovic, documents de la conf‚rence de Venise le 17 mars 1986. 2 - Je donne souvent cet exemple, car il explique la possibilit‚ de tomber dans l'erreur dans l'appr‚ciation des choses les plus ‚videntes et simples. Les hommes sont dispos‚s … mourir pour d‚fendre de fausses conceptions et … envoyer les autres … la mort. Si le soleil, qui sert d'exemple pour les choses ‚videntes, devient un exemple pour les choses cach‚es, et si les hommes sont … ce point capables de tomber dans l'erreur pendant des milliers d'ann‚es, que peut-on dire des conceptions et des interpr‚tations pour lesquelles nous n'admettrons point d'erreur au point de nous permettre d'envoyer les gens … la mort? 3 - Parmi les versets qui les soulignent, il y a "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs ƒmes afin qu'ils puissent connaŒtre qu'il est la v‚rit‚. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit t‚moin de toute chose ?" (L'Articulation : 53)/ "Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des criminels" (les Redans : 88) " Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des corrupteurs" (les Redans : 86)/"Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas : 39). Dans l'Evangile de MT : 16: 7 : " De leurs fruits vous les reconnaitrez; r‚colteront-ils des raisins des ‚pines et des figues des os des poissons? " 4 -"Il accroit dans la cr‚ation ce qu'il veut?" (Cr‚ateur : 1) et "?Et les chevaux, les mulets et les ƒnes pour les monter et pour l'apparat et il cr‚e d'autres chose que vous ne savez pas" (L es Abeilles : 8). 5 - Etant donn‚ que l'objectif essentiel du message des prophٹtes ‚tait que les hommes mettent en ?uvre la justice, conform‚ment au verset : 'Nous avons envoy‚ nos envoy‚s avec des preuves ‚videntes et nous avons fait descendre avec eux l'Ecriture et la balance pour que les hommes mettent en ?uvre la justice?' (Le Fer m 25); les privil‚gi‚s ont vis‚ ces prophٹtes par le meurtre. C'est pourquoi Dieu leur a fait joindre ceux qui ordonnent la justice : "ceux qui d‚nient les signes de Dieu et tuent les prophٹtes … contre v‚rit‚, et tuent ceux des humains qui ordonnent la justice annonce-leur un chƒtiment douloureux?" (Famille d'Imran : 21) Mais le t‚moignage de l'unicit‚ de Dieu et de la justice vient des gens de science sans citer les prophٹtes : "Dieu t‚moigne qu'il n'est de dieu que Lui (comme en t‚moignent) aussi les anges et les gens de sciences (et c'est l… de Sa part) accomplir la justice" (Famille d'Imran : 18). 6 - Lorsque je puise dans le Coran, je ne fais pas pour imposer … celui qui m'entend ma foi dans le Coran. La v‚rit‚ du propos ne tient pas … celui qui la dit, mais … sa cr‚dibilit‚ dans la r‚alit‚. Je suis ‚tonn‚ du peu d'int‚rˆt qu'accordent les modernistes … des illustrations puis‚es dans le Coran ou dans les autres livres saints. Supposez ce que vous voulez; n'est-ce pas l… des propos sur lesquels s'appliquent les fruits des id‚es des hommes que l'on accepte de s'y puiser, … tire d'illustration. 7 -Nous devons souligner ici que le Coran avait ordonn‚ aux musulmans de s'abstenir de se d‚fendre : "Retenez vos mains et accomplissez la priٹre" (Les Femmes : 77). Ensuite, il les invita … pratiquer un type rare de d‚sob‚issance : 'Ne lui ob‚it pas et prosterne-toi?" l'Adh‚rence : 19). Pour sa part, le Prophٹte prˆcha l'observation de la m‚thode du Fils tu‚ d'Adam dans les circonstances de troubles et de perte de la l‚galit‚, il dit "sois comme le meilleur des deux fils d'Adam. Si tu crains que la lumiٹre de ton sabre ne t'en enivre jette sur ton visage ta tenue". Il leur interdit de se d‚fendre, car il voulait ‚difier une soci‚t‚ de l‚galit‚. Celle-ci ne se r‚alise ni par la violence ni par la force. L'individu dans une soci‚t‚ l‚gale est prot‚g‚ par la soci‚t‚ et les instances de cette soci‚t‚. Si l'individu doit se prot‚ger lui-mˆme ce sera la loi de la jungle. En optant pour la violence, BEN LADEN puise dans le patrimoine et les id‚es de la r‚volution fran‡aise pr“nant le droit des peuples … r‚sister contre les colonisateurs et les occupants par tous les moyens. Il n'opte pas pour la m‚thode des prophٹtes en matiٹre de r‚forme et de changement (voir deux livres de l'auteur : "Sois comme le fils d'Adam" et "La religion et la loi"). 8 - Dans le Coran : 'Dis : Gens du Livre, vous ˆtes dans la nullit‚ tant que vous n'appliquez pas la Torah et l'Evangile et la r‚v‚lation sur vous descendue de votre Seigneur?" (La Table : 68). 9 - Dans le Coran : "Telle fut la loi de Dieu … l'‚gard des r‚volus, la loi de Dieu nul ne saura la changer" (Les Coalis‚s : 62). 159 2009-12-14T11:57:20Z Admin 1 Created page with ''''Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010''' '''"Le r“le des acteurs religieux dans la construction''' '''de la paix et de la d‚mocratie"''' Jawdat Said Mohamed Louang...' wikitext text/x-wiki '''Islam, Christianity and Europe, 2009-2010''' '''"Le r“le des acteurs religieux dans la construction''' '''de la paix et de la d‚mocratie"''' Jawdat Said Mohamed Louange … Dieu et paix sur ses serviteurs qu'il a ‚lus ainsi que sur ceux qui ordonnent la justice ===Introduction=== J'avais ‚crit, il y a un demi-siٹcle, un livre sur le r“le du penseur et de la pens‚e dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siٹcle auparavant, de nombreux d‚veloppements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et … grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formul‚s dans ce livre sont toujours valables, … mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. Le titre du livre "Jusqu'ils changent ce qu'il y a dans leurs ƒmes" ‚tait une partie d'un texte coranique. La thٹse y ‚tait que la crise a lieu dans la pens‚e avant de l'ˆtre dans la r‚alit‚. La crise commence chez le penseur avant de se manifester chez l'homme politique. Le monde est en crise parce que le penseur est en crise. Cela s'applique … toutes les crises du monde: celles de l'environnement, du climat, de l'alimentation, de l'‚conomie, de la coexistence et de toutes sortes de conflits et de guerres. Toutes les crises ont une seule source, celle de la crise des id‚es. La thٹse de ce livre reste d'actualit‚. Les id‚es et les penseurs sont … l'origine de la crise, que ce soit dans celles qu'ils expriment ou celles qu'ils n'expriment pas. C'est pourquoi il est une grande falsification que les intellectuels s'y pr‚sentent comme "sauveurs". Ils doivent plut“t s'y pr‚senter comme repentants. Ils doivent y assister pour op‚rer une r‚vision de leurs id‚es et une reconsid‚ration radicale de leurs racines. Malheureusement, le r“le de l'intellectuel manifeste deux grandes anomalies: - Soit dans sa compr‚hension et dans sa conscience qui est en de‡… de l'histoire. Il est incapable de se faire une vision actualis‚e du monde reposant sur l'histoire et prospectant l'avenir. Une vision qui lui permettrait de fournir aux hommes politiques des conseils utiles et justes susceptibles de changer la vocation de ce monde producteur de crises. - Soit, il est tacitement compromis, satisfait qu'il est des privilٹges ‚go‹stes que leur procurent les situations en place. Ces privilٹges l'amٹnent … fermer les yeux sur ce qui se passe dans le monde et … pr‚senter aux hommes politiques qui leur demandent conseils ce qu'ils veulent faire et non ce qu'ils doivent faire1. Cette compromission est, selon PIERRE BOURDIEU, est la principale cause de la situation dans la quelle nous sommes. Aujourd'hui, je sens qu'il est de mon devoir de pr‚senter mon point de vue comme observateur de ce monde tourment‚ dans lequel se confondent int‚rˆts et pertes. Un monde o— le cinquiٹme de l'humanit‚ jouit de savoir, de richesse et de privilٹges alors que vivent dans la misٹre et la corruption les quatre cinquiٹmes. Je tenterai, ici, d'expliquer une situation humaine difficile, non parce qu'elle est confuse mais parce qu'elle est trٹs claire, voire ‚vidente. Toutefois, cette ‚vidence est semblable … notre vision de la position du soleil2 par rapport … la terre. Les hommes croyaient pendant longtemps que le soleil tournait autour de la terre. Il s'est av‚r‚ que c'est nous qui tournons autour du soleil. Nous envisageons bien des choses ‚videntes par une telle confusion. L'objet de cette recherche fait partie de ces choses … la fois claires et confuses. Dans le monde que nous vivons aujourd'hui, une faible minorit‚ blanche ne repr‚sentant pas plus de 20% de l'humanit‚ jouit de 80% des richesses mondiales, alors que celles des 20% reculent … moins de 1,4%. Dans chaque soci‚t‚, les richesses sont partag‚es de la mˆme fa‡on. L'actuel ordre international est presque consacr‚ … maintenir ce partage et … garantir ces privilٹges. ==L'homme, la corruption et l'effusion de sang sont, jusqu'… aujourd'hui, le problٹme des et la raison pour laquelle nous sommes r‚unis!== Ayant foi dans la raison et dans la r‚v‚lation; lisant les signes de Dieu dans l'univers et dans le livre, suivant de prٹs ce qui se passe dans le monde, je donne une grande valeur … l'histoire et aux cons‚quences des ‚v‚nements3; faisant le tour du texte et de la r‚alit‚; vivant la dialectique entre r‚v‚lation et histoire, je trouve que le Coran me rend facile l'accٹs … une telle recherche, car il donne une grande valeur … l'histoire et aux cons‚quences des ‚v‚nements et annonce que l'univers connaŒt une cr‚ation et une ‚volution permanentes. Cette ‚volution va dans le sens du meilleur.4 Le Coran affirme le scellement des proph‚ties, la fermeture de la porte du ciel et la fin de l'ٹre des prophٹtes en faveur de l'avٹnement de celle de la raison humaine et ce, lorsque "ceux qui ordonnent la justice" parmi les intellectuels assument la fonction de prophٹtes5. En contrepartie de la fermeture de la porte du ciel, le Coran ouvre la porte de la terre. L'Histoire et les cons‚quences des ‚v‚nements sont devenues la source du savoir et de la r‚v‚lation permanentes: "Dis: allez par terre et regardez comment Il a commenc‚ la cr‚ation" (L'Araign‚e: 20). En contrepartie de la fin de l'ٹre des prophٹtes, les activistes religieux et les intellectuels assument la mission de la r‚forme, mission qui constitue, je le pense, l'objectif de votre conf‚rence. ==Selon ma compr‚hension, le Coran aborde, de trois aspects, cette question objet de la conf‚rence et ce, … travers trois r‚cits:== *Le premier r‚cit est celui de l'homme et de la corruption. *Le 2ٹme r‚cit est celui de la responsabilit‚. *Le 3ٹme r‚cit est celui de la non-violence et de la raison. Quiconque veut comprendre ces r‚cits comme des v‚rit‚s historiques peut le faire, mais qui y voit des r‚cits symboliques peut le faire ‚galement sans le moindre inconv‚nient. C qui compte c'est de s'arrˆter sur ses vis‚es6: 1- Les anges s'opposٹrent … la cr‚ation de l'homme au premier instant de la cr‚ation: "Ils dirent: vous y cr‚ez celui qui y sٹme la corruption et fait couler le sang ?" Dieu r‚pond: "Je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Comme l'Histoire nous le fait savoir, le texte trace l'horizon vers lequel l'homme se meut. Il commence par la corruption et l'effusion du sang, mais la ligne de l'‚volution et la direction du progrٹs sont celles de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Si, selon les pr‚visions des anges, les hommes ne savent aujourd'hui que faire couler le sang et mener des guerres et des conflits, autrement dit, s'ils ne concr‚tisent pas encore la science de Dieu, nous observons dans l'Histoire ce que nous lisons dans le livre, … savoir que l'homme fait se pas en direction de "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas" (La G‚nisse: 30). 2- Dans le 2ٹme r‚cit, le Coran parle d'Adam et de sa femme … qui Dieu recommanda: "n'approchez pas cet arbre" Mais ils rompirent leur pacte en mangeant de cet arbre prohib‚. Toutefois, lorsque leur Seigneur les appela "ne vous ai-je pas interdit (d'approcher) cet arbre" leur r‚ponse fut: "Seigneur, nous avons commis une injustice envers nous-mˆmes" Ils reconnurent leur faute et assumٹrent la responsabilit‚ de leur acte. Nous pouvons lire dans cela une r‚plique … l'accusation des anges contenue dans le premier texte. Cette r‚ponse trace les traits de la voie de Dieu, celle du progrٹs de l'homme dans l'Histoire. Cette r‚ponse est contraire celle de Satan qui justifia sa d‚sob‚issance; tant“t par des arguments racistes "je suis meilleur que lui", tant“t par des arguments philosophiques "puisque vous m'avez ‚gar‚" La morale du r‚cit consiste en ceci: innocenter soi ?mˆme en accusant autrui ne constitue pas une solution du problٹme, mais une d‚viation de la voie de sa solution. Cette derniٹre r‚side dans l'accusation de soi-mˆme. H‚las, les hommes suivent, jusqu'… nos jours, la doctrine de Satan, … savoir s'innocenter et accuser autrui. Ils ne suivent pas celle d'Adam accusant soi ?mˆme, doctrine que soutiennent les lois de l'Histoire, les faits de la vie et la m‚thodologie du Coran: "ce qui t'atteint comme mal il vient de toi-mˆme" (Les Femmes: 79). 3- Dans le dernier r‚cit, celui des deux fils d'Adam, le fils qui ‚choua dit … l'autre qui gagna: "je te tuerai". Il l'accusa d'ˆtre la cause de son ‚chec au lieu de s'en accuser lui-mˆme. Il trouva dans le meurtre une solution. Mais celui qui prit conscience de son humanit‚ et sut d‚couvrir la grƒce de Dieu dans le cerveau dont il l'a dou‚ refusa de tomber dans le monde bas des muscles. Reconnaissant la grƒce de la raison, il r‚pondit: "si tu me tends la main pour me tuer je ne tendrai pas … toi pour te tuer, je crains Dieu, Seigneur des univers"(La Table: 27-28). Il refusa obstin‚ment et avec un haut sens de responsabilit‚ de participer au meurtre, prenant conscience du fait qu'il disposait d'un nouveau pouvoir, celui de la raison qu'il devait d‚sormais utiliser. Il inaugura une nouvelle ٹre et r‚alisa un nouveau bond dans l'Histoire et dans la conscience humaine. Ainsi, l'Histoire ne commen‡a pas par le meurtre ou le crime, mais par une action humaine, celle de la non-violence. Il refusa le meurtre, l'effusion de sang et la d‚fense de soi7. L'Histoire a inscrit … maintes reprises ce martyre dont le plus ‚vident fut Socrate bravant et acceptant la mort pour ne pas arrˆter son dialogue avec sa raison. Il ne renon‡a pas … son devoir ou … sa responsabilit‚. La morale de ces r‚cits r‚side dans la confiance dans l'homme et dans son avenir, dans l'affirmation de son aptitude … construire la terre, dans la foi dans sa capacit‚ … mettre un arrˆt … la corruption et … consolider la justice et ce, par la prise de conscience par les hommes en g‚n‚ral et par les intellectuels en particulier de leur responsabilit‚ historiques. C'est pourquoi ils ne doivent pas attendre un sauveur, car ils sont tous des sauveurs selon la voie de Dieu et la voie du Fils d'Adam; celle du respect de la raison. Un tel respect signifie automatiquement que l'on accuse soi-mˆme et que l'on emprunte la voie de la non-violence. Croire dans la raison comme m‚thode de r‚solution des problٹmes signifie l'exclusion de la violence ou le meurtre. ==Unifier Dieu est la justice== Selon le Coran, la justice est le point de d‚part de la nouvelle th‚ologie qui est celle de l'unification de dieu. Unifier celui qui est au ciel n'est pas une question m‚taphysique mais une question sociopolitique. Cela veut dire qu'il n'y a pas de dieux humains sur terre. Tant qu'il y a des privilٹges dans le monde il n'y aura ni paix ni pr‚servation des vies humaines, mais misٹre d'un c“t‚ et inqui‚tude de l'autre, misٹre et souffrances chez la majorit‚ de la population de la planٹte et crainte et anxi‚t‚ chez la minorit‚ riche. Tout le monde v‚gٹte dans l'enfer de la peur que ce soit pour gagner son pain ou pour pr‚server ses privilٹges. Selon le Coran, l'objectif de l'envoi des prophٹtes ‚tait que" les hommes se comporte en justice" (Le Fer m 25). C'est qu'explique le verset de l'‚galit‚: "Venez … un mot d'‚galit‚?.." (Famille d'Imran m 64) dans une allusion claire au fait que l'unification de Dieu au ciel signifie l'‚galit‚ des hommes sur terre. Cette conception de l'unicit‚ et de la justice rend l'id‚alisme r‚aliste, le m‚taphysique physique, le divin humain et le surnaturel naturel. La religion devient-elle une science. Vous discutez aujourd'hui du r“le des religieux dans les zones des conflits. Je dis que toute la terre est une zone de conflits. Les conflits r‚gionaux et la corruption r‚gionale participent de la grande corruption … l'ONU. Les privilٹges que les Grands veulent maintenir sont la source de tous les maux. Il n'y aura ni s‚curit‚ ni paix sur terre tant que la justice restera un choix exclus pour la r‚solution des conflits, tant que nous ferons le culte de la force et tant que nous resterons silencieux au Conseil de s‚curit‚ … l'‚gard du droit au veto qui entrave le d‚veloppement du monde: "nous n'avons d‚truit les villes que parce que leurs habitant furent injustes" (Les r‚cits: 59). Je me demande si le nazisme et le fascisme avaient remport‚ la victoire … la guerre auraient-ils pu cr‚er une instance pire que l'ONU. Hitler et MOUSSILINI auraient-ils fait autre chose que de donner … eux-mˆmes et au Japon le droit ay veto ? L'ordre international sous lequel nous vivons aujourd'hui consacre la loi de la jungle. Il est impos‚ par la force des vainqueurs de la 2ٹme guerre mondiale. L'ONU est un temple o— sont ador‚es les idoles de la force. C'est une feuille qui ne cache pas mais montre plut“t la nudit‚ de l'humanit‚. Comment prˆcher les droits de l'homme et la d‚mocratie tout en approuvant un principe contraire … la d‚mocratie, aux droits de l'homme et … l'humanit‚ ? Quiconque le fait ressemble … celui qui voit la paille dans l'?il d'autrui et ne voit pas la poutre dans le sien. Passer au silence l'injustice et la corruption constitue une hypocrisie politique, religieuse et culturelle. Or, l'Histoire nous apprend que les privil‚gi‚s ne renoncent pas volontairement … leurs privilٹges. Une telle analyse me procure une grande satisfaction, d'autant plus qu'elle repose sur l'Histoire, la parole des prophٹtes et les faits de la vie. Je prˆche une parole d'‚galit‚ que le Coran d‚finit comme suit: "que nous ne sous prenions pas pour des dieux les uns les autres" (Famille d'Imran: 64). Cela veut dire que nul ne doit ˆtre au-dessus de la loi, car si c'est le cas ce sera l'idolƒtrie, ce p‚ch‚ que impardonnable et cette grande injustice qui fait ‚chouer toutes les actions et avec quoi mˆmes mes bonnes actions sont inutiles. C'est-l… la source de tous les malheurs de l'Histoire. Qu'il entende celui qui a des oreilles! Nous nous devons de r‚nover le monde et de r‚nover ses principes. Les principes de militaires ainsi que le culte de la force ne sauraient produire qu'un monde malade et en crise, comme celui auquel nous assistons, un monde o— le dernier mot est au … la force, un monde o— pr‚vaut l'injustice, un monde gouvern‚ par le droit au veto,( cet h‚ritage romain qui coupe court avec la modernit‚) et qui constitue une violation permanente et flagrante des principes des droits de l'homme et reste un alibi pour les petits tyrans du tiers-monde. Ce que l'on peut inscrire en faveur des Europ‚ens c'est qu'ils ont cr‚‚ non seulement des moyens de transport et de diffusion des informations, mais ‚galement un moyen de passation du pouvoir autre que celui du meurtre et de l'h‚ritage. Un moyen qui respecte la raison humaine, fait revivifier le sens de la l‚galit‚, donne une valeur au choix des hommes, exactement comme le pratiquait MOHAMMED au VIIٹme siٹcle. Je r‚pٹte toujours que l'homme est la plus grande cr‚ation de Dieu et que la d‚mocratie est la plus grande cr‚ation de l'homme. L'essence de cette d‚mocratie r‚side dans le fait que tous les hommes croient dans la n‚cessit‚ de ne pas recourir … la violence dans le rٹglement des problٹmes mais … la conviction et aux urnes. La d‚mocratie est une nouvelle cr‚ation; elle ‚volue pour le meilleur. La d‚mocratisation du monde est le d‚fi … relever par les intellectuels et les hommes politiques afin de rendre le monde plus s–r et rende tous les hommes plus tranquilles. O monde des Grande, vous resterez dans la nullit‚8 jusqu'… ce que vous accepteriez que l'ONU devienne un forum d‚mocratique ayant trois instances: l‚gislative, ex‚cutive et juridique. C'est … ce moment-l… que nous dirons que le concept de l‚galit‚ est consolid‚, que la justice et la paix pr‚valent et que les v?ux de tous les prophٹtes sont exauc‚s. ==Les signes des horizons et des ƒmes et l'Histoire comme r‚f‚rence== "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs ƒmes afin qu'ils puissent connaŒtre qu'il est la v‚rit‚. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit t‚moin de toute chose?" (L'Articulation: 53) "Dis: allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des d‚n‚gateurs" (les Troupeaux: 11) "Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas: 39) Le Coran utilise les signes sur les horizons et dans les ƒmes, comme des t‚moins justes qui ne sauraient ˆtre accus‚s de partialit‚ et de parti pris. Quiconque puisse d‚fendre sa cause par les signes sur les horizons et dans les ƒmes r‚unit les conditions de sa validation. Ainsi, son argumentation sortira-t-elle du monde de l'inconnaissable pour entrer dans celui du connaissable. Selon le Coran, l'Histoire devient ainsi arbitre et source de compr‚hension du comportement humain: "des pr‚c‚dents sont d‚j… pass‚s avant vous, allez par terre et regardez quelle fut la fin des d‚n‚gateurs (Famille d'Imran: 137) Il s'agit l) d'un principe coranique qui exige de nous de regarder le pass‚ et de l'‚tudier. C'est une langue que nul ne peut nier, que ce soit dans les signes sur les horizons (ceux du monde ext‚rieur) ou ceux dans les ƒmes (ceux du comportement humain). Le Coran dit: "N'as-tu pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers Ad, envers ceux de Thamoud qui affouillaient la roche dans le val, envers Pharaon; maŒtre des pilastres. Ils commettaient l'outrance dans le monde, ils n'y faisaient qu'accroŒtre la corruption; alors ton Seigneur sur eux d‚versa le fouet du supplice. Oui, ton Seigneur est aux aguets" (L'Aube: 6-14)/ C'est une loi immuable qui ne saurait changer9. Ainsi pourrons-nous trouver un guide dans cette maniٹre de voir les choses; nous pourrions dire: n'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa ton Seigneur envers l'URSS qui tomba de l'int‚rieur en disposant d'armes capables de d‚truire le globe ? N'avez-vous pas vu comme en usa votre Seigneur envers Hitler et Napol‚on. Je ne suis pas int‚ress‚ par l'‚num‚ration des malheurs et des ‚v‚nements; je suis plut“t int‚ress‚ de prouver le principe de la r‚f‚rence de l'Histoire. Sur ce point, je dois m'arrˆter pour dire que l'‚volution a men‚ l'homme malgr‚ lui … la d‚mocratie qui signifie la raison, la conviction et la paix. En vertu de cette vision, j'avais annonc‚ la mort de la guerre avec la premiٹre explosion nucl‚aire. Les Grands ne sont plus capables de faire la guerre. Ils utilisent l'ignorance des ignorants, voire l'exploitent en leur vendant des armes. Les guerres offrent l'occasion de faire des sacrifices humains. Le meurtre n'a jamais ‚t‚ une solution des problٹmes. Au contraire, il n'a fait qu'aggraver les problٹmes. C'est la le‡on tir‚e de l'Histoire. Selon cette vision, l'Union europ‚enne est une concr‚tisation du mot d'‚galit‚. Elle est la plus grande r‚alisation de la raison humaine. Les europ‚ens ont cru dans ce qu'il y a de plus sacr‚ dans les religions, … savoir ne pas se prendre pour de dieux les uns les autres, au moins parmi eux. Ils se sont d‚barrass‚s de Napol‚on et d'Hitler. C'est leur culture qui l'a cr‚‚, ce n'‚tait pas un don du ciel. C'‚tait le fruit des souffrances. Ce n'‚tait ni Napol‚on ni Hitler ni la force ni la contrainte qui l'ont fait, mais la raison humaine, cette cr‚ature de Dieu qui a su comprendre la le‡on de l'Histoire aprٹs avoir exp‚riment‚ tant de guerre, celles des cent ans, des trente ans, des guerres de religions et des guerres mondiales o— elle fait sacrifice de centaines de millions de victimes. Cette Union ne croitra pas par la conquˆte ou l'annexion militaire mais avec l'approbation de toutes les parties en calculant b‚n‚fices et int‚rˆts sur la base de cette rٹgle: personne ne perdra rien et tous y gagneront. C'est une conquˆte volontaire … telle point que les pays qui d‚sirent y adh‚rer crient: admettez-nous et nous acceptons toutes vos les conditions. C'est grande conquˆte ‚vidente. Certes, vous n'avez pas unifi‚ le monde mais cette maniٹre de s'unir peut obtenir l'unanimit‚ du monde. C'est une chose la plus proche de la religion de Dieu, de ses envoy‚s et de la nature de l'humanit‚. C'est un nouveau fait parmi tous ce que les hommes ont exp‚riment‚. ==Conclusion== Le monde d'ici-bas n'a ni commenc‚ ni pris fin chez nous. Il y a dix mille ans seulement; l'homme vivait nu dans les cavernes mangeant de la chaire de son frٹre,. Cette p‚riode des d‚buts de l'humanit‚ ressemble aux premiٹres ann‚es de l'enfant qui ne pouvait mˆme pas se nettoyer. Il n'y a pas de honte l…-dessus, mais honte il y a lorsqu'il reste ainsi en ƒge de majorit‚! Elle est une honte pour les intellectuels de voir les hommes se tuer les uns les autres. Notre existence dans ce monde n'est ni absurdit‚ ni nullit‚, le bonheur de l'homme d‚coule de son action servant une cause juste. La plus grande mission … s'atteler consiste … mettre un arrˆt … la corruption et … l'effusion de sang. L'ٹre des prophٹtes a pris fin et la responsabilit‚ est pass‚e aux tenants de la science qui doivent faire sortir les hommes des t‚nٹbres vers la lumiٹre, c'est vers "je sais ce que vous ne savez pas". Les plus proches de Dieu sont ceux qui rendent le plus de services … leurs frٹres, les hommes. Les prophٹtes sont venus pour amener les hommes … faire … se devancer les uns les autres dans l'accomplissement des bonnes actions. Faisons la concurrence dans la maniٹre d'‚difier la paix mondiale et dans la maniٹre de construire une soci‚t‚ mondiale o— les hommes deviennent ‚gaux devant la loi. Ainsi r‚aliserons-nous la volont‚ de Dieu et les v?ux des prophٹtes. Gloire … Dieu dans les lieux trٹs-hauts; et sur la terre, paix; et bon plaisir dans les hommes! Mai ˆtre l… gloire pour Dieu au-dessus, l'amour pour les gens et la paix sur Terre. Mai la paix, la mis‚ricorde et l'abondance soient sur vous. Jawdat Said Mohamed Syrie - Beer Ajam == references== 1 - Santiago Genovic, documents de la conf‚rence de Venise le 17 mars 1986. 2 - Je donne souvent cet exemple, car il explique la possibilit‚ de tomber dans l'erreur dans l'appr‚ciation des choses les plus ‚videntes et simples. Les hommes sont dispos‚s … mourir pour d‚fendre de fausses conceptions et … envoyer les autres … la mort. Si le soleil, qui sert d'exemple pour les choses ‚videntes, devient un exemple pour les choses cach‚es, et si les hommes sont … ce point capables de tomber dans l'erreur pendant des milliers d'ann‚es, que peut-on dire des conceptions et des interpr‚tations pour lesquelles nous n'admettrons point d'erreur au point de nous permettre d'envoyer les gens … la mort? 3 - Parmi les versets qui les soulignent, il y a "Nous leur ferons voir nos signes sur les horizons et dans leurs ƒmes afin qu'ils puissent connaŒtre qu'il est la v‚rit‚. Ne suffira-t-il pas que ton Seigneur soit t‚moin de toute chose ?" (L'Articulation : 53)/ "Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des criminels" (les Redans : 88) " Dis : allez par terre et puis regardez quelle fut la fin des corrupteurs" (les Redans : 86)/"Et puis, regarde quelle fut la fin des injustes" (Jonas : 39). Dans l'Evangile de MT : 16: 7 : " De leurs fruits vous les reconnaitrez; r‚colteront-ils des raisins des ‚pines et des figues des os des poissons? " 4 -"Il accroit dans la cr‚ation ce qu'il veut?" (Cr‚ateur : 1) et "?Et les chevaux, les mulets et les ƒnes pour les monter et pour l'apparat et il cr‚e d'autres chose que vous ne savez pas" (L es Abeilles : 8). 5 - Etant donn‚ que l'objectif essentiel du message des prophٹtes ‚tait que les hommes mettent en ?uvre la justice, conform‚ment au verset : 'Nous avons envoy‚ nos envoy‚s avec des preuves ‚videntes et nous avons fait descendre avec eux l'Ecriture et la balance pour que les hommes mettent en ?uvre la justice?' (Le Fer m 25); les privil‚gi‚s ont vis‚ ces prophٹtes par le meurtre. C'est pourquoi Dieu leur a fait joindre ceux qui ordonnent la justice : "ceux qui d‚nient les signes de Dieu et tuent les prophٹtes … contre v‚rit‚, et tuent ceux des humains qui ordonnent la justice annonce-leur un chƒtiment douloureux?" (Famille d'Imran : 21) Mais le t‚moignage de l'unicit‚ de Dieu et de la justice vient des gens de science sans citer les prophٹtes : "Dieu t‚moigne qu'il n'est de dieu que Lui (comme en t‚moignent) aussi les anges et les gens de sciences (et c'est l… de Sa part) accomplir la justice" (Famille d'Imran : 18). 6 - Lorsque je puise dans le Coran, je ne fais pas pour imposer … celui qui m'entend ma foi dans le Coran. La v‚rit‚ du propos ne tient pas … celui qui la dit, mais … sa cr‚dibilit‚ dans la r‚alit‚. Je suis ‚tonn‚ du peu d'int‚rˆt qu'accordent les modernistes … des illustrations puis‚es dans le Coran ou dans les autres livres saints. Supposez ce que vous voulez; n'est-ce pas l… des propos sur lesquels s'appliquent les fruits des id‚es des hommes que l'on accepte de s'y puiser, … tire d'illustration. 7 -Nous devons souligner ici que le Coran avait ordonn‚ aux musulmans de s'abstenir de se d‚fendre : "Retenez vos mains et accomplissez la priٹre" (Les Femmes : 77). Ensuite, il les invita … pratiquer un type rare de d‚sob‚issance : 'Ne lui ob‚it pas et prosterne-toi?" l'Adh‚rence : 19). Pour sa part, le Prophٹte prˆcha l'observation de la m‚thode du Fils tu‚ d'Adam dans les circonstances de troubles et de perte de la l‚galit‚, il dit "sois comme le meilleur des deux fils d'Adam. Si tu crains que la lumiٹre de ton sabre ne t'en enivre jette sur ton visage ta tenue". Il leur interdit de se d‚fendre, car il voulait ‚difier une soci‚t‚ de l‚galit‚. Celle-ci ne se r‚alise ni par la violence ni par la force. L'individu dans une soci‚t‚ l‚gale est prot‚g‚ par la soci‚t‚ et les instances de cette soci‚t‚. Si l'individu doit se prot‚ger lui-mˆme ce sera la loi de la jungle. En optant pour la violence, BEN LADEN puise dans le patrimoine et les id‚es de la r‚volution fran‡aise pr“nant le droit des peuples … r‚sister contre les colonisateurs et les occupants par tous les moyens. Il n'opte pas pour la m‚thode des prophٹtes en matiٹre de r‚forme et de changement (voir deux livres de l'auteur : "Sois comme le fils d'Adam" et "La religion et la loi"). 8 - Dans le Coran : 'Dis : Gens du Livre, vous ˆtes dans la nullit‚ tant que vous n'appliquez pas la Torah et l'Evangile et la r‚v‚lation sur vous descendue de votre Seigneur?" (La Table : 68). 9 - Dans le Coran : "Telle fut la loi de Dieu … l'‚gard des r‚volus, la loi de Dieu nul ne saura la changer" (Les Coalis‚s : 62). 0 39 86 84 2009-05-09T19:52:05Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Jawdat.jpg‎|right]] Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir [http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=فريضة_الغفران اقرأ هذه المقالة باللغة العربية] ==L’exigence du pardon== Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous aime, pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs aiment ceux qui les aiment et si vous faites du bien seulement à ceux qui vous font du bien pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs en font autant. » L’Evangile ; traduction biblique, Villiers le bel ; France, Luc 6 :32-33 p175 « Vous [musulmans], vous les traitez en amis alors qu’ils vous traitent en ennemis et vous croyez au livre dans sa totalité, pendant que quand ils vous rencontrent, vous disent qu’ils sont eux aussi des croyants. Mais dès qu’ils se trouvent seuls ils se mordent les doigts de colère contre vous. Dis leur ‘puissiez vous mourir de rage’ Dieu connaît si bien le fond de leur pensée ». Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:119, page 65 Au nom de Dieu et paix sur tous les Hommes qui luttent pour la justice Cher frère, Apôtre de la non-violence, Jean-Marie Muller, La rencontre qui eut lieu entre nous fut heureuse, originale et fructueuse. Lorsque Gandhi l’hindou rencontra le français Romain Rolland, en se serrant la main ils se dirent « nous sommes deux citoyens étrangers à cette terre, univers » ; et moi quand j’ai rencontré le petit fils de Gandhi, Aron Gandhi, à Washington, je lui ai rappelé ce que son grand père a dit à Romain Rolland en ajoutant ceci : « nous ne sommes plus des citoyens étrangers ». Et lorsque j’ai rencontré le Dalaï Lama à Rome, je lui ai adressé une critique d’après ce que j’ai entendu de lui « Tu me rappelles Socrate, celui qui a refusé se faire exiler ou de s’expatrier en disant que : le pays vers lequel je m’exilerai est identique à celui-ci que je quitterai, je ne m’exilerai point et j’assumerai tout cela. Il fut condamné à mort, accepta le verdict en toute sérénité et but la ciguë sans aucune hésitation. ». J’imagine maintenant quelle fut la conception du monde dans lequel Socrate vécu et comment il vit l’avenir de l’humanité, et comment il donna l’exemple aux futurs sages en leur suggérant comment ils doivent se comporter à une pareille épreuve. J’ai ajouté au Dalaï Lama « Socrate n’imaginait pas q’un pays l’aurait accueilli, alors que vous, Dalaï Lama, êtes accueilli aujourd’hui dans plusieurs pays avec respect et bon accueil. » Il me répondit : « cependant, mon pays m’y est interdit de vivre ». Il raconta après que l’un de ses disciples qui se châtièrent dans les camps de rétention, lui a dit lorsqu’il l’a rencontré : « j’ai atteint un degré tel que j’ai eu peur de changer d’opinion ». Le Dalaï Lama lui dit alors « as-tu craint le pire, la mort ? » et lui répondit « Non, je craignais la perte de mon amour envers ceux qui me châtiaient et de les haïr par la suite ». Le texte que vous avez écrit sur ma philosophie de la non-violence, ô mon frère Jean-Marie Muller, lors notre rencontre, vous m’avez rangé parmi « les premiers penseurs musulmans qui ont déployé un incroyable effort pour introduire le concept de non-violence dans le monde musulman. »1 et que mon livre « semble sans conteste original et fécond »2. Ce paragraphe me rappelle une foule de prétentions. Quand j’ai rencontré Aron Gandhi, il entamait l’écriture d’un livre sur Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ami intime de son grand père Gandhi. Ce dernier témoigna que Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ainsi que ses disciples les Pathans, avaient été les artisans légendaires de la non-violence dans les régions montagneuses à la frontière nord de l’Inde britannique. Eknath Easwaran, penseur non-violent hindou, lui a consacré un livre bien documenté, écrit en anglais3 et traduit en arabe par Ibrahim Atta sous le titre «Homme et non tous les hommes : Badshah Khan, Soldat de la non-violence en Islam ».4 Lors d’un colloque portant sur la non-violence chez les musulmans tenu à Washington, j’ai rencontré Moubarak Awad l’apôtre de la non-violence, palestinien, de confession chrétienne et Wahid Khan l’hindou. J’ai discuté avec Moubarak Awad sur les sources de ma pensée non-violente et sur mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam » ; cette histoire été racontée dans le Livre (sefer) de la genèse, l’un des premiers livres de l’ancien testament, ainsi que dans les dernières Sourate selon la hiérarchie de la révélation coranique. Moubarak Awad me dit « Il a lu tous les écrits des adeptes de la non-violence, s’est précipité pour les rencontrer et il n’a jamais vu un pareil style auquel j’invite les gens dans la non-violence. ». A ce moment là, je ne prêtais pas attention à ce que disait Moubarak Awad, mais lorsque, vous, frère Jean-Marie, avez dit à propos de mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam : le problème de la violence dans le monde musulman » ; « ce livre paraît original et fécond », m’a fait rappelé de ce que Moubarak Awad, avait dit et comment il n’a jamais entendu quelqu’un aborder ce sujet comme je le traite. Et lorsque vous avez dit de mon œuvre qu’elle est originale et féconde, j’ai ressenti que vous m’aviez compris et que vous avez compris pourquoi j’ai laissé les expériences non6violentes des militants non-violents et je suis allé puiser dans l’histoire et la mythologie. Et comme vous avez signalé et cité, cher frère, dans votre texte « Visite à Jawdat Saïd », pour moi qu’il s’agisse d’un événement historique ou d’une histoire symbolique, ce qui me semble important dans cette histoire c’est la voie qu’elle indique pour que l’humanité s’élève au niveau de l’esprit et de l’âme. Il n’existe aucune hésitation ni aucun doute dans la position du premier fils d’Adam qui a accepté de mourir au lieu de tuer. Le premier fils d’Adam semble déterminé et il a la volonté de faire face aux conséquences de son attitude et de prendre toutes ses responsabilités. Je vois l’âme et la position non-violente du premier fils d’Adam, Abel, reprise par Socrate. Personne ne peut affirmer que l’histoire de Socrate est un mythe. Socrate a défié la violence de ses adversaires par le courage et la force de la raison et de l’âme. Socrate non seulement méprisaient leur violence mais se moquaient également de celle-ci. Herbert George Wells dans son oeuvre « The Outline of History » dit : « ceux qui se sont moqués de Jésus sont comme ceux qui jetant l’eau du bain du bébé jettent et l’eau et le bébé. ». Et je constate que les penseurs contemporains n’osent pas prononcer ou citer le nom de Jésus ni celui de l’Evangile comme s’ils se polluent, se salissent, en les prononçant. Voici donc quelques maladies de la laïcité, comme si ce que l’Eglise avait accompli lors de l’inquisition, avait aboutit à ne pas admettre même l’idée de l’existence d’un Jésus qui dit « La pierre tant méprisée par les maçons (artisans) est devenue la pierre angulaire ». Jésus dans un style scientifique, parlant des faux prophètes qui dans leur apparence sont des doux agneaux mais qui dans le fond sont des loups. Il est dit dans l’Evangile de Mathieu : «gardez–vous des faux prophètes ils viennent à vous déguisés en brebis, mais au-dedans ce sont des loups féroces. »5 Et quand on l’interrogea « O maître comment distingue-t-on les agneaux des loups ? » il répondit « Vous les reconnaîtrez à leur conduite On ne cueille pas des raisins sur des buissons d’épines, ni des figues sur chardons. Un bon arbre produit de bons fruits et un arbre malade de mauvais fruits. Un bon arbre ne peut pas produire de mauvais fruits ni un arbre malade de bons fruits. Tout arbre qui ne produit pas de bons fruits est coupé puis jeté au feu. Ainsi donc, vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite»6. Le philosophe Russel dit « celui qui dit que le feu brûle, parle d’une expérience et d’un raisonnement scientifique » alors Russel continue que le dit de Jésus «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un raisonnement scientifique. Nous avons l’impression que l’homme est incapable de comprendre l’évolution des capacités humaines. L’homme a découvert son histoire ignorée. L’homme ne savait pas que l’homme avait vécu longtemps avant de découvrir le feu. Une fois découvert, il a appris à le rallumer, il a appris l’agriculture avant même qu’il domestique les animaux. Il vivait comme le reste des êtres vivants, se nourrissant de ce que la terre lui offre spontanément. Il a fait de la parole une écriture lisible ce qui distingue l’homme de l’animal. Ainsi, l’homme a pu conserver la pensée des autres qui auparavant se perdait avec la mort de ses artisans. Grâce au développement du cerveau, le système nerveux est devenu capable de faire la part des choses, de faire le lien entre la cause et l’effet. Son appareil phonatoire a pu développer et est devenu capable de nommer les choses. La parole lui a permis de transmettre ce que son cerveau « sa pensée » lui dicte à d’autres. L’homme naît ignorant, ne savant rien. Ainsi dans le Coran, dans la Sourate «Les Abeilles », dit : « Dieu vous a fait naître du ventre de vos mères, dénués de tout savoir, et vous a donné l’ouïe, la vue, et l’intelligence. Peut-être lui en serez-vous reconnaissants ? »7. Il est clair qu’à sa naissance, l’homme ne connaît aucune langue ni aucune religion, cependant, il naît doté d’une capacité d’apprendre une langue, n’importe laquelle, d’embrasser n’importe quelle religion mais quand on applique la règle dictée par Jésus on peut alors distinguer d’entre les différents fruits, le véritable du faux prophète, distinguer le vrai du faux et distinguer la vérité du mensonge et de l’illusion. Moi, maintenant, je n’arrive pas, O mon frère Jean-Marie, à exprimer avec clarté ou expliquer avec force, comment le droit de veto est la cause capitale de la déchéance et de la décadence du monde. De nos jours, la démocratie que les européens exercent leur permet de ne pas recourir à la force militaire pour s’ouvrir les uns sur les autres contrairement à ce que firent Hitler et Napoléon dont la mission fut un échec. Ainsi, grâce à la démocratie, les autres pays voisins de l’Europe, s’avancent vers elle en lui disant acceptez-nous selon vos conditions, laissez nous adhérer à votre union démocratique. Ceci est un fait nouveau dans l’histoire de l’humanité sinon on aurait mal compris ce que signifie vraiment le savoir ou la science dont Russel avait dit que le feu brûle et avait subtilement ajouté qu’il reconnaît que la définition de Jésus : «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un style aussi scientifique. Cher Jean-Marie, vous avez dit à propos de l’abrogation dans le Coran qu’elle est toujours d’actualité et que je plaide pour que les versets qui correspondent le mieux aux exigences de la justice abrogent ceux qui y correspondent le moins. En vérité le Coran nous appuie : « Il fait descendre du ciel de l’eau qui coule dans les vallées à la mesure de leur capacités, et le courant charrie l’écume qui surnage, à l’image du laitier qui se dégage de la fonte des métaux dont on fabrique et ustensiles. Dieu use de cette image pour bien établir la différence qu’il y a entre le vrai et le faux, car l’écume inconsistante s’en va au rebut, tandis que ce qui est utile aux hommes se dépose sur le terrain. Ainsi, Dieu propose des paraboles utiles. »8. Ainsi est la loi de l’existence. Et je trouve que l’union européenne est la réalisation du savoir divin et son application sur l’humain. Quand Dieu a dit aux anges : « Puis vint le jour dit aux anges : je vais installer un représentant sur la terre »9, ils ont répliqué décrivant l’homme comme non méritant d’une telle mission parce qu’il va faire régner le mal et y faire couler le sang : « Vas-tu établir quelqu’un qui y fera régner le mal et y rependra le sang, alors que nous chantons ta gloire et célébrons tes louanges »10. Et le Seigneur leur répondit : « Ce que je sais dépasse votre entendement.»11. Ainsi l’expérience de l’union européenne approuve le savoir divin sur l’humain et blâme et dément les prétentions des anges comme elle dément ceux qui continuent à tuer les humains. L’une des conditions d’adhésion à l’union européenne est l’abolition de la peine de mort. La Turquie a aboli la peine de mort afin de se faire accepter au sein de cette union et c’est ainsi que le leader kurde Abdellah Oujalan a échappé à la peine de mort. Cher frère Jean-Marie, je pense que nous partageons la même interprétation de l’histoire. Quand je contemple l’histoire du petit pays qui est le Japon, le seul pays qui a vraiment connu l’enfer de la bombe atomique et qui n’a pas déclaré une guerre de libération comme l’Algérie ou le Vietnam, - les américains eux-mêmes ont chassé les colonisateurs anglais par la guerre et la violence - mais le Japon est devenu un pays développé et une puissance mondiale après les USA qui se précipite vers le déclin. Les japonais ne sont pas des musulmans ni des chrétiens ni non plus des juifs, mais fils d’Adam, doués de raison, et grâce à leur conception du monde, sont devenus, sans guerre libératrice, une puissance mondiale. C’est pourquoi je dis que ce n’est que lorsque l’ONU deviendra une véritable démocratie qui croit en la vraie démocratie et œuvre pour une véritable démocratie que peut installer la justice et par conséquent la paix mondiale. Je suis optimiste et je pense qu’on va bientôt y aboutir. J’ai dit lors d’une émission télé « L’orthodoxie et la vie » sur le canal Al Jazeera12 : « La guerre est morte. Elle est désuète. Elle n’est pratiquée que par les ignorants et ceux qui exploitent la crédulité des gens ». J’ajoute que « toute chose devenant savoir, science, se globalisera, devenant universelle. », je dis également que « tous les prophètes ont apporté avec eux un savoir, une idée de justice, d’équité et de paix. ». Le Coran dit « Nous avons envoyé nos prophètes munis de preuves irréfutables, et Nous avons descendre avec eux le livre et la balance, afin de faire régner la justice parmi les hommes »13. Ceci est un discours qui englobe tous les prophètes que nous connaissons à travers les livres saints. Toutefois, les prophètes que nous ne connaissons pas et qui ne sont pas cités par leurs noms dans le Coran, avaient la même mission selon le Coran. Le Coran dit : « En vérité, Nous avons envoyé un prophète à chaque communauté avec le message suivant : adorez Dieu et éloignez-vous du culte des idoles. Et si certaines de ces communautés ont suivi la voie du Seigneur, d’autres ont préféré le chemin de l’erreur. Allez donc de par le monde et voyez qu’elle a été la fin de ceux qui criaient au mensonge ! »14. Le Coran cite ici une preuve scientifique : « voyez » c’est-à-dire observez leur conduite, leurs fruits, les résultats de leurs actions afin d’identifier ou de connaître celui qui est droit de celui qui dévoie, celui qui est dans la réminiscence de celui qui est dans la fausseté. Le Coran dit « Dis : Ô gens des Ecritures ! Mettons nous d’accord sur une formule valable pour nous et pour vous, à savoir de n’adorer de Dieu seul, de rien lui associer et de ne pas nous prendre les uns les autres pour des maîtres en dehors de Dieu. S’ils s’y refusent, dites leur : soyez témoin que, en ce qui nous concerne, notre soumission à Dieu est totale et entière. »15. Je saisi de cet appel « O gens des Ecritures » non seulement ceux qui ont reçu une révélation mais aussi tout un chacun qui sait lire. En effet, celui qui sait lire appartient aux « gens d’Ecritures » car il a acquis la capacité et le moyen pour étudier toutes les religions et toute la pensée humaine. Je dis, et j’insiste, que si la démocratie aboutit aux Nations Unies la parole juste et l’appel des prophètes, se réaliseront. Je vois que dans n’importe quelle constitution démocratique, il doit y avoir la liberté de croire et la liberté de penser ainsi que la liberté de propager nos croyances et nos pensées. Chacun a le droit de penser et de croire ce qu’il veut quand il veut. Et s’il arrive à convaincre les gens et à les faire convertir à ses pensées et à ses dogmes sans violence, c’est « Hallal » - licite - pour lui. L’invitation à une formule valable c’est le mot qu’il faut mettre dans n’importe quelle équation mathématique [=] deux lignes parallèles, c’est-à-dire, je mets entre vous, moi et le monde, ce mot dont le signe mathématique est le symbole [=]. C’est selon cette loi que les astres se meuvent dans leur orbite. Si cette loi s’altère, le monde s’écroule. Le maintien de ces astres dans leur trajectoire et orbite est la conséquence de cette juste équation. Cette loi qui commande les astres commande aussi les sociétés. La société où la justice est absente, s’écroule incontestablement et l’histoire en témoigne. Ainsi, le non usage des armes ni la possession de celles-ci n’a pas empêché le Japon de devenir une puissance mondiale. En revanche, cela n’a pas empêché l’effondrement de l’URSS en dépit de son arsenal nucléaire sans être attaqué par un ennemi extérieur. Il s’est effondré de son propre intérieur avec la complicité des actions clandestines non-violentes de ses propres dissidents. Le Coran considère que ces événements sont un témoignage que la violence et tous les moyens qu’elle use, n’ont pas de pouvoir ni de prise sur l’homme dont Dieu a insufflé de son Ame et qui a accepté cette responsabilité. Le Coran dit « En vérité, nous avons proposé le dépôt de la foi aux Cieux, à la terre et aux montagnes, mais tous refusèrent d’en assumer la responsabilité et en furent effrayés, alors que l’homme, par comble d’ignorance et d’iniquité s’en est chargé. »16. Si l’homme ne veille pas sur ce dépôt (Amana), et s’il le néglige, il devient injuste et ignorant selon la conception coranique. Dans le livre d’exemples de la Torah il est dit : « Je suis la compréhension, à moi la puissance, ma récolte vaut mieux que l’or et l’argent purs. Tous tes biens précieux lui sont inégalables. » Et dans l’Evangile : « Ainsi vous connaîtrez la vérité et la vérité vous rendra libres»17 et « Un de ceux qui étaient avec Jésus tira son épée, frappa le serviteur du grand prêtre et lui coupa l’oreille. » Jésus lui dit alors : « remets ton épée à sa place car tous ceux qui prennent l’épée périront par l’épée »18. Ce qui m’a poussé d’intituler mon livre « La doctrine du premier fils d’Adam de la non-violence » est la narration de cette histoire dans la Torah dans les premiers livres de l’Ancien Testament tel qu’elle fut racontée dans Sourate El Maida « La Table » parmi l’un des derniers révélés du Coran. « Racontes leur l’histoire des deux fils d’Adam telle qu’elle s’est déroulée. Chacun des deux frères avait fait une offrande ; mais celle de l’un fut acceptée, alors que celle de l’autre ne le fut point : ‘Je te tuerais’, dit ce dernier à son frère qui lui répond : ‘Que veux-tu, Dieu n’accepte que de ceux qu’ils le craignent ! Et si tu portes la main sur moi pour me tuer, je n’en ferias pas de même car je crains trop mon Seigneur, le maître de l’univers, pour commettre un pareil crime ! Je préfère que tu te charges, seul, de mes péchés et des tiens, et tu seras alors voué à la Géhenne qui est la juste récompense des criminels.’ Mais n’obéissant qu’à son instinct bestial le deuxième fils d’Adam (Caïn) fut entraîné au meurtre de son frère. Il le tua donc et se trouva de ce fait du nombre des réprouvés. Dieu envoya alors un corbeau qui se mit à gratter le sol pour lui indiquer comment inhumer le cadavre de son frère. Alors le meurtrier s’écria ‘Malheur à moi ! Suis-je donc incapable d’imiter ce corbeau et d’ensevelir la dépouille de mon frère’ et, depuis lors il ne cessa d’être rongé par d’intenses remords. Voilà pourquoi nous avons édicter cette loi au fils d’Israël : ‘Quiconque tue un être humain non convaincu de meurtre ou de sédition sur la terre est considéré comme le meurtrier de l’humanité toute entière. Quiconque sauve la vie d’un seul être humain est considéré comme ayant sauvé la vie de l’humanité toute entière !’ Malgré les multiples et irréfutables preuves qui leur furent apportées par Nos prophètes, beaucoup d’entre eux n’en continuèrent pas moins à commettre des excès sur la terre. »19. Les adeptes de ces Livres représentent plus de la moitié de l’humanité qui se répandent sur les cinq continents. Ils seront contraints d’accepter la démocratie qui est une invention humaine basée sur la science et les expériences vécues. L’univers entier est au service de l’être humain et est à sa disposition comme il est exprimé dans la Torah et le Coran. Celui-ci dit : « Dieu est Témoin, et avec Lui les anges et les initiés parmi les hommes qu’il n’y a que de divinité que Lui, Lui, le Dieu de la justice. Il n’y a en vérité de divinité que Lui, le puissant, le sage. »20 Et il dit « Dieu vous prescrit de restituer les dépôts à leurs propriétaires et de vous montrer équitables quand vous êtes appelés à juger vos semblables. C’est là une noble mission que Dieu vous exhorte à remplir. Dieu entend tout, voit tout. »21. Et il dit « La bonne action et la mauvaise action ne sont pas pareilles. Rends le bien pour le mal, et tu verras ton ennemi se muer en fervent allié ! Mais une telle grandeur d’âme est seulement le privilège de ceux qui savent faire preuve de patience et de ceux qui sont touchés par une grâce peu commune. »22. Le Coran procure la liberté de penser : il insiste : «Dis : ‘la Vérité émane de votre Seigneur. Croira qui voudra, niera qui voudra !’ »23. La mécréance ne fait pas l’objet d’un châtiment dans la vie ici bas. Le mécréant et le croyant ont les mêmes devoirs et les mêmes droits. La justice coranique est universelle. Le Coran interdit voire menace d’être injuste envers un non croyant quelle que soit sa pensée. (L’apostasie est une invention purement idéologique inventée par les Amaouites pour liquider leurs rivaux politiques.). Ce qui est strictement interdit par dessus tout est de contraindre les gens à embrasser ou quitter une quelconque doctrine. La justice est pareille et pour le croyant et le non croyant. Aucun n’a le droit d’imposer ses idées, son idéologie, son dogme, par la contrainte et la violence. Chacun, selon l’équation égalitaire, a le droit de faire la propagande pour sa philosophie tant qu’il ne pratique pas la contrainte, la violence et la brutalité car là celles-ci sont contre l’idée de l’humain. La contrainte et la violence ne donne ni la foi ni façonne la mécréance. Une vraie religion révélée ne contraint point. Celui qui accepte la mort en refusant la contrainte et la violence en s’accrochant à sa propre la foi et à sa pensée, est selon moi un adepte du fils Adam, un disciple de Socrate ainsi que tous ceux qui scellent la pacte divin et le pacte de la liberté de l’homme en ses croyances. La raison humaine a atteint ce principe par l’invention de la démocratie. Les turques ont précédés le reste des musulmans dans leur acte de foi dans la démocratie lorsqu ‘ils ont répondu aux américains qui voulaient emprunter le passage pour envahir l’Irak, ils ont rétorqué, « nous devons consulter notre peuple ». L’actuel président turque dans son premier discours a déclaré la foi de son gouvernement en la démocratie. Celui qui convainc son peuple par les idées a le droit de les gouverner. Il a également le droit de garantir toutes les libertés. La voie de la non-violence équivaut à la non contrainte dans le dogme, dans la politique, dans la fondation familiale, etc. Le 2 février 2008, j’ai reçu chez moi dans mon village Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), la visite de l’ambassadeur de l’Inde à Damas qui a entendu d’un certain Jawdat Saïd qui prêche la non-violence. Je lui ai fait savoir combien «j’étais flatté par la visite de l’ambassadeur du pays de Gandhi. J’ai ajouté comment quelqu’un comme moi voit son pays. Vous êtes, selon moi, la plus grande démocratie au monde. Le nombre d’habitants de l’Inde est plus supérieur que la somme des habitants de l’URSS, l’UE et les USA. Vous avez toutes les confessions du monde, tous les courants musulmans et chrétiens en plus des religions orientales, et malgré tout vous êtes une vraie démocratie. Cependant, si vous êtes fidèles aux principes non-violents de Gandhi, vous n’aurez point céder à la tentation de posséder la bombe nucléaire. Gandhi ne faisait aucune distinction entre un oppresseur hindou et un oppresseur anglais. Vous êtes maintenant candidat à devenir un membre permanent à l’ONU. Si vous accepteriez d’avoir le droit de veto, votre réputation s’effondrerait à nos yeux, nous serions déçus. Ce que nous voulons par contre est que vous oeuvriez à abolir ce paragraphe ou cet article injuste dans l’espoir qu’un jour l’ONU devienne une démocratie réelle. » Nous ne craignons pas que la justice soit vaincue dans le monde. En vérité, ceux qui refusent la justice sont les privilégiés qui ne sont pas prêts à abandonner volontairement leurs privilèges. Ceux qui comprennent bien le concept de la justice sont les déshérités, les opprimés qui représentent les 80 % de la population mondiale et profitent seulement de 20% de la richesse du monde. Nous qui croyons à l’exigence de la justice, nous devons nous émanciper et émanciper les autres. Je vous suis très reconnaissant, cher Jean-Marie Muller, avec votre œuvre monumentale qui incite à la prise de conscience des vertus des principes de la philosophie non-violente. J’ai eu la chance de lire une partie de cette œuvre, que je vais d’ailleurs relire, qui ouvre les yeux à ceux qui ont désespéré d’une éventuelle possibilité du changement de l’ordre social. Si nous saisissons ce qui s’est vraiment passé dans notre histoire mondiale et comprenons comment les privilégiés se sont donnés des avantages lorsqu’ils ont gagné la guerre par la guerre et la violence, alors si Hitler avait gagné la guerre, il n’aurait pas fait aussi pire que ce que fait l’ONU actuellement. Herbert G. Wells, auteur de « The Outline of History » dit : « Celui qui possède le strict minimum du savoir des Livres révélés, saura, et s’il saura, refusera que l’homme s’instaure comme être divin. » Le droit de veto est une sorte de déification, divination, imposée aux déshérités. Parmi les longues histoires du Coran, des fois concises et d’autres fois longues et détaillées, est l’histoire de Moïse et du Pharaon de telle manière que le nom de Moïse est cité 100 fois et celui de Pharaon, plus de 70 fois. Le Coran donne la parole au Pharaon (symbole des hommes politiques injustes), Hâmân (symbole des hommes de la religion injustes), karoun (symbole des riches injustes), les magiciens, les femmes, etc… A titre d’exemple Pharaon dit : « Après quoi, il tourna le dos et s’en alla rassembler ses hommes et leur déclara : ‘je suis votre Seigneur le plus puissant’ »24 « S’adressant alors aux dignitaires, Pharaon dit : ‘vous n’avez pas, que je sache, une autre dieu que moi ! Et toi Hâmân, fais-moi cuire des briques et construis moi une tour pour que je monte jusqu’au Dieu de Moïse ! Je suis certain que Moïse est un imposteur.’ »25 « ‘Si tu adores un autre divinité que moi, je te jetterais en prison’ s’écria Pharaon »26 « Les magiciens se prosternèrent alors face au sol en disant : ‘nous croyons au Seigneur d’Aaron (frère de Moïse) et de Moïse !’ ‘Quoi !’ dit Pharaon. Vous vous êtes ralliés à Moïse sans prendre mon accord ? C’est sans doute lui votre chef qui vous a enseigné la magie. Je vais vous faire couper les mains et les pieds en ordre croisé et vous faire crucifier sur des troncs de palmiers. Et vous saurez qui de nous dispose du châtiment le plus sévère et le plus durable ! »27. « Comment osez-vous, s’écria Pharaon, vous convertir à son culte sans que je vous y autorise ? C’est là un complot que vous avez ourdi dans la citée en chasser les habitants ! Vous allez voir ! Je vous ferais couper une main d’un côté et un pied de l’autre avant de vous faire tous crucifier !»28 « Ce que je vous propose, repris Pharaon, est le meilleur parti à prendre, à mon avis, et la solution que je vous indique est sûrement la bonne. »29. Toutefois, à propos du Pharaon Dieu dit : « Nous avons envoyé aussi Moïse, nanti de Nos signes et d’une preuve réelle, à Pharaon et à ses dignitaires. Mais ces derniers suivirent l’ordre de Pharaon ; bien que son ordre fut dénué de toute sagesse »30. Il n’est pas permis à tout un chacun de croire que avec sa permission. Ce que Moïse et son frère Aaron ont vécu avec Pharaon, est arrivé aussi à Abraham, à Noé, à tous les prophètes ainsi qu’à Socrate, Gandhi, et vous-même cher frère Jean-Marie Muller. Les hommes seront contraints de s’unir comme fut unie l’UE. Les apôtres de la non-violence préparent la voie à cette union basée sur l’exigence de la justice afin que personne ne soit au dessus des lois. Une parole du prophète Mohammad véhicule la même idée : « Ont péri ceux qui vont, ont précédés qui ne punissait pas l’élite quand elle viole la loi. Cependant, quand le faible commet un délit ils appliquent sur lui la loi. ». Dans cette logique, la loi s’applique sur les faibles et protège les élites. C’est ainsi que les prophètes refusent le favoritisme envers n’importe qui et qui soient au dessus des lois. L’idée de mécréance selon les prophètes est l’injustice, et l’acte de foi est la justice envers tous les hommes. La justice est la religion de Dieu. Le Coran dit « Mais Dieu veillait à l’exécution d’un arrêt pris par Lui de toute éternité pour que pérît, en connaissance de cause, celui que devait périr, et survécu à la mêlée, en connaissance de cause celui qui devait survivre. »31 Et le Coran cite aussi comme loi universelle : « Ton Seigneur, en effet, ne saurait anéantir injustement les citées dont les habitants sont vertueux »32 et il dit « Ton Seigneur n’anéantit jamais les citées avant d’envoyer dans leur métropole un messager pour leur réciter Nos versets, car Nous n’avons à anéantir que les citées dont les habitants sont injustes. »33 Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, notre rencontre et votre texte a enrichi ma foi dans la foi de l’homme et de son avenir. Le Coran dit sur les prophètes : « Et lorsque, à la fin, les prophètes désespérés du succès de leur mission et croyaient qu’on les prenait pour des imposteurs, Nous leur envoyons Notre secours et Nous sauvions qui Nous voulions, sans que jamais nos rigueurs fussent détournés de la gent criminelle »34. Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, l’origine et la fin du monde ne commence ni ne finit pas avec notre génération. Je souhaite que nous oeuvrons et nous nous entraidons pour établir la piété et la bienveillance « Que l’aversion que vous ressentez pour ce qui vous ont empêché naguère de vous approcher de la mosquée sacrée ne vous pousse pas à commettre des agressions ! Soyez plutôt solidaires dans la charité et la piété et non dans le péché et l’agression ! »35 et que nous ne oeuvrerons pas donc dans la violence et l’agression. Il faut que l’on veille à être témoins de la vérité et que l’on ait le courage de la dire. « Je prends le temps à témoin que l’humanité court à sa perte, hormis ceux qui croient pratiquants les bonnes œuvres, se recommandent mutuellement la droiture et se recommandent mutuellement l’endurance. »36. L’homme commence à peine à comprendre, pour que son existence ait un sens, doit comprendre que non existence dans ce monde n’est point un hasard ni une absurdité ni un jeu. L’existence de l’homme a un sens et doit être au service d’une cause. La noble cause qui puisse exister est de faire stopper l’injustice et la violence. Il est honteux que les humains s’entretuent entre eux à l’aube du 21ème siècle. Je vous remercie, cher frère Jean-Marie Muller, ô fils d’Adam. Nous devons rester fidèles à l’homme et à l’humain même s’il se trompe et commet des fautes. L’une des grandes morales de Jésus lorsqu’il l’interrogea « combien de fois, est-il permis à mon frère d’être en faute envers moi ? Alors est-ce que je lui pardonne jusqu’à sept fois ? Jésus répondit « Je n’ai pas dit sept fois mais soixante dix fois sept fois. »37. Autrement dit mon frère Jean-Marie, nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon. L’une des dernières paroles de Jésus fut « O Dieu ! Pardonne-leur car ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font. »38 Merci encore une fois cher frère Jean-Marie. Et engageons nos vies au service de l’homme et de l’humanité. Jésus est envoyé pour qu’il soit au service des autres et non qu’il soit servi. Ton frère Jawdat Saïd Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), Syrie 11 Octobre 2008 Traduction du Dr Driss Bellahcene Révision par Driss Oumehdi et Isabelle Cros-Oumehdi ==FootNotes== 1. Jean-Marie Muller, « Visite à Jawdat Saïd » page 1, 2008 traduit en arabe par Mohamed Ali Abdeljalil 2. Ibid., page 1 3. Eknath Easwaran, « A man to match his mountains : Badshah Khan, Nonviolent soldier of Islam » 4. Publication du centre palestinien des études de non-violence, Jérusalem 1987 5. Mathieu 7 :15 6. Matthieu 7, 16 à 20 7. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Abeilles 16:78, page 275 8. Ibid., Sourate Le Tonnerre 13:17, page 251 9. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 10. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 11. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 12. Voir http://www.aljazeera.net/Channel/archive/archive?ArchiveId=90935 Pour les œuvres complètes (écrites et vidéo) de Jawdat Saïd, www.jawdatsaid.net 13. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Le Fer 57:25, page 541 14. Ibid., Sourate Les Abeilles 16 :36, page 271 15. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:64, page 58 16. Ibid., Sourate Les Coalisés 33:72, page 427 17. Luc 8:32 18. Mathieu : 26 : 51-52 19. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:27 à 32, pages 112 et 113 20. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3 :18, page 52 21. Ibid., Sourate Les Femmes 4:58, page 87 22. Ibid., Sourate Les Versets détaillés 41:34, page 480 23. Ibid., Sourate La Caverne 18:29, page 297 24. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Arracheurs 79:22 à 24, page 584 25. Ibid., Sourate Le Récit 28:38, page 390 26. Ibid., Sourate Les Poètes 26:29, page 368 27. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Taha 20:70 et 71, page 316 28. Ibid., Sourate Les Murailles 7:123 et 124, page 165 29. Ibid., Sourate Le Pardonneur 40:29, page 470 30. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:96 et 97, page 232 31. Ibid., Sourate Les Prises de guerre 8:42, page 182 32. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:117, page 234 33. Ibid., Sourate Le récit 28:59, page 392 34. Ibid., Sourate Joseph 12:110, page 248 35. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:2, page 106 36. Ibid., Sourate Le Temps 103 :1 à 3, page 601 37. Mathieu 31:18 38. Luc 23 :33 84 83 2009-05-08T19:34:02Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki [[File:Jawdat.jpg‎|right]] Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir ==L’exigence du pardon== Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous aime, pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs aiment ceux qui les aiment et si vous faites du bien seulement à ceux qui vous font du bien pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs en font autant. » L’Evangile ; traduction biblique, Villiers le bel ; France, Luc 6 :32-33 p175 « Vous [musulmans], vous les traitez en amis alors qu’ils vous traitent en ennemis et vous croyez au livre dans sa totalité, pendant que quand ils vous rencontrent, vous disent qu’ils sont eux aussi des croyants. Mais dès qu’ils se trouvent seuls ils se mordent les doigts de colère contre vous. Dis leur ‘puissiez vous mourir de rage’ Dieu connaît si bien le fond de leur pensée ». Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:119, page 65 Au nom de Dieu et paix sur tous les Hommes qui luttent pour la justice Cher frère, Apôtre de la non-violence, Jean-Marie Muller, La rencontre qui eut lieu entre nous fut heureuse, originale et fructueuse. Lorsque Gandhi l’hindou rencontra le français Romain Rolland, en se serrant la main ils se dirent « nous sommes deux citoyens étrangers à cette terre, univers » ; et moi quand j’ai rencontré le petit fils de Gandhi, Aron Gandhi, à Washington, je lui ai rappelé ce que son grand père a dit à Romain Rolland en ajoutant ceci : « nous ne sommes plus des citoyens étrangers ». Et lorsque j’ai rencontré le Dalaï Lama à Rome, je lui ai adressé une critique d’après ce que j’ai entendu de lui « Tu me rappelles Socrate, celui qui a refusé se faire exiler ou de s’expatrier en disant que : le pays vers lequel je m’exilerai est identique à celui-ci que je quitterai, je ne m’exilerai point et j’assumerai tout cela. Il fut condamné à mort, accepta le verdict en toute sérénité et but la ciguë sans aucune hésitation. ». J’imagine maintenant quelle fut la conception du monde dans lequel Socrate vécu et comment il vit l’avenir de l’humanité, et comment il donna l’exemple aux futurs sages en leur suggérant comment ils doivent se comporter à une pareille épreuve. J’ai ajouté au Dalaï Lama « Socrate n’imaginait pas q’un pays l’aurait accueilli, alors que vous, Dalaï Lama, êtes accueilli aujourd’hui dans plusieurs pays avec respect et bon accueil. » Il me répondit : « cependant, mon pays m’y est interdit de vivre ». Il raconta après que l’un de ses disciples qui se châtièrent dans les camps de rétention, lui a dit lorsqu’il l’a rencontré : « j’ai atteint un degré tel que j’ai eu peur de changer d’opinion ». Le Dalaï Lama lui dit alors « as-tu craint le pire, la mort ? » et lui répondit « Non, je craignais la perte de mon amour envers ceux qui me châtiaient et de les haïr par la suite ». Le texte que vous avez écrit sur ma philosophie de la non-violence, ô mon frère Jean-Marie Muller, lors notre rencontre, vous m’avez rangé parmi « les premiers penseurs musulmans qui ont déployé un incroyable effort pour introduire le concept de non-violence dans le monde musulman. »1 et que mon livre « semble sans conteste original et fécond »2. Ce paragraphe me rappelle une foule de prétentions. Quand j’ai rencontré Aron Gandhi, il entamait l’écriture d’un livre sur Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ami intime de son grand père Gandhi. Ce dernier témoigna que Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ainsi que ses disciples les Pathans, avaient été les artisans légendaires de la non-violence dans les régions montagneuses à la frontière nord de l’Inde britannique. Eknath Easwaran, penseur non-violent hindou, lui a consacré un livre bien documenté, écrit en anglais3 et traduit en arabe par Ibrahim Atta sous le titre «Homme et non tous les hommes : Badshah Khan, Soldat de la non-violence en Islam ».4 Lors d’un colloque portant sur la non-violence chez les musulmans tenu à Washington, j’ai rencontré Moubarak Awad l’apôtre de la non-violence, palestinien, de confession chrétienne et Wahid Khan l’hindou. J’ai discuté avec Moubarak Awad sur les sources de ma pensée non-violente et sur mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam » ; cette histoire été racontée dans le Livre (sefer) de la genèse, l’un des premiers livres de l’ancien testament, ainsi que dans les dernières Sourate selon la hiérarchie de la révélation coranique. Moubarak Awad me dit « Il a lu tous les écrits des adeptes de la non-violence, s’est précipité pour les rencontrer et il n’a jamais vu un pareil style auquel j’invite les gens dans la non-violence. ». A ce moment là, je ne prêtais pas attention à ce que disait Moubarak Awad, mais lorsque, vous, frère Jean-Marie, avez dit à propos de mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam : le problème de la violence dans le monde musulman » ; « ce livre paraît original et fécond », m’a fait rappelé de ce que Moubarak Awad, avait dit et comment il n’a jamais entendu quelqu’un aborder ce sujet comme je le traite. Et lorsque vous avez dit de mon œuvre qu’elle est originale et féconde, j’ai ressenti que vous m’aviez compris et que vous avez compris pourquoi j’ai laissé les expériences non6violentes des militants non-violents et je suis allé puiser dans l’histoire et la mythologie. Et comme vous avez signalé et cité, cher frère, dans votre texte « Visite à Jawdat Saïd », pour moi qu’il s’agisse d’un événement historique ou d’une histoire symbolique, ce qui me semble important dans cette histoire c’est la voie qu’elle indique pour que l’humanité s’élève au niveau de l’esprit et de l’âme. Il n’existe aucune hésitation ni aucun doute dans la position du premier fils d’Adam qui a accepté de mourir au lieu de tuer. Le premier fils d’Adam semble déterminé et il a la volonté de faire face aux conséquences de son attitude et de prendre toutes ses responsabilités. Je vois l’âme et la position non-violente du premier fils d’Adam, Abel, reprise par Socrate. Personne ne peut affirmer que l’histoire de Socrate est un mythe. Socrate a défié la violence de ses adversaires par le courage et la force de la raison et de l’âme. Socrate non seulement méprisaient leur violence mais se moquaient également de celle-ci. Herbert George Wells dans son oeuvre « The Outline of History » dit : « ceux qui se sont moqués de Jésus sont comme ceux qui jetant l’eau du bain du bébé jettent et l’eau et le bébé. ». Et je constate que les penseurs contemporains n’osent pas prononcer ou citer le nom de Jésus ni celui de l’Evangile comme s’ils se polluent, se salissent, en les prononçant. Voici donc quelques maladies de la laïcité, comme si ce que l’Eglise avait accompli lors de l’inquisition, avait aboutit à ne pas admettre même l’idée de l’existence d’un Jésus qui dit « La pierre tant méprisée par les maçons (artisans) est devenue la pierre angulaire ». Jésus dans un style scientifique, parlant des faux prophètes qui dans leur apparence sont des doux agneaux mais qui dans le fond sont des loups. Il est dit dans l’Evangile de Mathieu : «gardez–vous des faux prophètes ils viennent à vous déguisés en brebis, mais au-dedans ce sont des loups féroces. »5 Et quand on l’interrogea « O maître comment distingue-t-on les agneaux des loups ? » il répondit « Vous les reconnaîtrez à leur conduite On ne cueille pas des raisins sur des buissons d’épines, ni des figues sur chardons. Un bon arbre produit de bons fruits et un arbre malade de mauvais fruits. Un bon arbre ne peut pas produire de mauvais fruits ni un arbre malade de bons fruits. Tout arbre qui ne produit pas de bons fruits est coupé puis jeté au feu. Ainsi donc, vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite»6. Le philosophe Russel dit « celui qui dit que le feu brûle, parle d’une expérience et d’un raisonnement scientifique » alors Russel continue que le dit de Jésus «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un raisonnement scientifique. Nous avons l’impression que l’homme est incapable de comprendre l’évolution des capacités humaines. L’homme a découvert son histoire ignorée. L’homme ne savait pas que l’homme avait vécu longtemps avant de découvrir le feu. Une fois découvert, il a appris à le rallumer, il a appris l’agriculture avant même qu’il domestique les animaux. Il vivait comme le reste des êtres vivants, se nourrissant de ce que la terre lui offre spontanément. Il a fait de la parole une écriture lisible ce qui distingue l’homme de l’animal. Ainsi, l’homme a pu conserver la pensée des autres qui auparavant se perdait avec la mort de ses artisans. Grâce au développement du cerveau, le système nerveux est devenu capable de faire la part des choses, de faire le lien entre la cause et l’effet. Son appareil phonatoire a pu développer et est devenu capable de nommer les choses. La parole lui a permis de transmettre ce que son cerveau « sa pensée » lui dicte à d’autres. L’homme naît ignorant, ne savant rien. Ainsi dans le Coran, dans la Sourate «Les Abeilles », dit : « Dieu vous a fait naître du ventre de vos mères, dénués de tout savoir, et vous a donné l’ouïe, la vue, et l’intelligence. Peut-être lui en serez-vous reconnaissants ? »7. Il est clair qu’à sa naissance, l’homme ne connaît aucune langue ni aucune religion, cependant, il naît doté d’une capacité d’apprendre une langue, n’importe laquelle, d’embrasser n’importe quelle religion mais quand on applique la règle dictée par Jésus on peut alors distinguer d’entre les différents fruits, le véritable du faux prophète, distinguer le vrai du faux et distinguer la vérité du mensonge et de l’illusion. Moi, maintenant, je n’arrive pas, O mon frère Jean-Marie, à exprimer avec clarté ou expliquer avec force, comment le droit de veto est la cause capitale de la déchéance et de la décadence du monde. De nos jours, la démocratie que les européens exercent leur permet de ne pas recourir à la force militaire pour s’ouvrir les uns sur les autres contrairement à ce que firent Hitler et Napoléon dont la mission fut un échec. Ainsi, grâce à la démocratie, les autres pays voisins de l’Europe, s’avancent vers elle en lui disant acceptez-nous selon vos conditions, laissez nous adhérer à votre union démocratique. Ceci est un fait nouveau dans l’histoire de l’humanité sinon on aurait mal compris ce que signifie vraiment le savoir ou la science dont Russel avait dit que le feu brûle et avait subtilement ajouté qu’il reconnaît que la définition de Jésus : «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un style aussi scientifique. Cher Jean-Marie, vous avez dit à propos de l’abrogation dans le Coran qu’elle est toujours d’actualité et que je plaide pour que les versets qui correspondent le mieux aux exigences de la justice abrogent ceux qui y correspondent le moins. En vérité le Coran nous appuie : « Il fait descendre du ciel de l’eau qui coule dans les vallées à la mesure de leur capacités, et le courant charrie l’écume qui surnage, à l’image du laitier qui se dégage de la fonte des métaux dont on fabrique et ustensiles. Dieu use de cette image pour bien établir la différence qu’il y a entre le vrai et le faux, car l’écume inconsistante s’en va au rebut, tandis que ce qui est utile aux hommes se dépose sur le terrain. Ainsi, Dieu propose des paraboles utiles. »8. Ainsi est la loi de l’existence. Et je trouve que l’union européenne est la réalisation du savoir divin et son application sur l’humain. Quand Dieu a dit aux anges : « Puis vint le jour dit aux anges : je vais installer un représentant sur la terre »9, ils ont répliqué décrivant l’homme comme non méritant d’une telle mission parce qu’il va faire régner le mal et y faire couler le sang : « Vas-tu établir quelqu’un qui y fera régner le mal et y rependra le sang, alors que nous chantons ta gloire et célébrons tes louanges »10. Et le Seigneur leur répondit : « Ce que je sais dépasse votre entendement.»11. Ainsi l’expérience de l’union européenne approuve le savoir divin sur l’humain et blâme et dément les prétentions des anges comme elle dément ceux qui continuent à tuer les humains. L’une des conditions d’adhésion à l’union européenne est l’abolition de la peine de mort. La Turquie a aboli la peine de mort afin de se faire accepter au sein de cette union et c’est ainsi que le leader kurde Abdellah Oujalan a échappé à la peine de mort. Cher frère Jean-Marie, je pense que nous partageons la même interprétation de l’histoire. Quand je contemple l’histoire du petit pays qui est le Japon, le seul pays qui a vraiment connu l’enfer de la bombe atomique et qui n’a pas déclaré une guerre de libération comme l’Algérie ou le Vietnam, - les américains eux-mêmes ont chassé les colonisateurs anglais par la guerre et la violence - mais le Japon est devenu un pays développé et une puissance mondiale après les USA qui se précipite vers le déclin. Les japonais ne sont pas des musulmans ni des chrétiens ni non plus des juifs, mais fils d’Adam, doués de raison, et grâce à leur conception du monde, sont devenus, sans guerre libératrice, une puissance mondiale. C’est pourquoi je dis que ce n’est que lorsque l’ONU deviendra une véritable démocratie qui croit en la vraie démocratie et œuvre pour une véritable démocratie que peut installer la justice et par conséquent la paix mondiale. Je suis optimiste et je pense qu’on va bientôt y aboutir. J’ai dit lors d’une émission télé « L’orthodoxie et la vie » sur le canal Al Jazeera12 : « La guerre est morte. Elle est désuète. Elle n’est pratiquée que par les ignorants et ceux qui exploitent la crédulité des gens ». J’ajoute que « toute chose devenant savoir, science, se globalisera, devenant universelle. », je dis également que « tous les prophètes ont apporté avec eux un savoir, une idée de justice, d’équité et de paix. ». Le Coran dit « Nous avons envoyé nos prophètes munis de preuves irréfutables, et Nous avons descendre avec eux le livre et la balance, afin de faire régner la justice parmi les hommes »13. Ceci est un discours qui englobe tous les prophètes que nous connaissons à travers les livres saints. Toutefois, les prophètes que nous ne connaissons pas et qui ne sont pas cités par leurs noms dans le Coran, avaient la même mission selon le Coran. Le Coran dit : « En vérité, Nous avons envoyé un prophète à chaque communauté avec le message suivant : adorez Dieu et éloignez-vous du culte des idoles. Et si certaines de ces communautés ont suivi la voie du Seigneur, d’autres ont préféré le chemin de l’erreur. Allez donc de par le monde et voyez qu’elle a été la fin de ceux qui criaient au mensonge ! »14. Le Coran cite ici une preuve scientifique : « voyez » c’est-à-dire observez leur conduite, leurs fruits, les résultats de leurs actions afin d’identifier ou de connaître celui qui est droit de celui qui dévoie, celui qui est dans la réminiscence de celui qui est dans la fausseté. Le Coran dit « Dis : Ô gens des Ecritures ! Mettons nous d’accord sur une formule valable pour nous et pour vous, à savoir de n’adorer de Dieu seul, de rien lui associer et de ne pas nous prendre les uns les autres pour des maîtres en dehors de Dieu. S’ils s’y refusent, dites leur : soyez témoin que, en ce qui nous concerne, notre soumission à Dieu est totale et entière. »15. Je saisi de cet appel « O gens des Ecritures » non seulement ceux qui ont reçu une révélation mais aussi tout un chacun qui sait lire. En effet, celui qui sait lire appartient aux « gens d’Ecritures » car il a acquis la capacité et le moyen pour étudier toutes les religions et toute la pensée humaine. Je dis, et j’insiste, que si la démocratie aboutit aux Nations Unies la parole juste et l’appel des prophètes, se réaliseront. Je vois que dans n’importe quelle constitution démocratique, il doit y avoir la liberté de croire et la liberté de penser ainsi que la liberté de propager nos croyances et nos pensées. Chacun a le droit de penser et de croire ce qu’il veut quand il veut. Et s’il arrive à convaincre les gens et à les faire convertir à ses pensées et à ses dogmes sans violence, c’est « Hallal » - licite - pour lui. L’invitation à une formule valable c’est le mot qu’il faut mettre dans n’importe quelle équation mathématique [=] deux lignes parallèles, c’est-à-dire, je mets entre vous, moi et le monde, ce mot dont le signe mathématique est le symbole [=]. C’est selon cette loi que les astres se meuvent dans leur orbite. Si cette loi s’altère, le monde s’écroule. Le maintien de ces astres dans leur trajectoire et orbite est la conséquence de cette juste équation. Cette loi qui commande les astres commande aussi les sociétés. La société où la justice est absente, s’écroule incontestablement et l’histoire en témoigne. Ainsi, le non usage des armes ni la possession de celles-ci n’a pas empêché le Japon de devenir une puissance mondiale. En revanche, cela n’a pas empêché l’effondrement de l’URSS en dépit de son arsenal nucléaire sans être attaqué par un ennemi extérieur. Il s’est effondré de son propre intérieur avec la complicité des actions clandestines non-violentes de ses propres dissidents. Le Coran considère que ces événements sont un témoignage que la violence et tous les moyens qu’elle use, n’ont pas de pouvoir ni de prise sur l’homme dont Dieu a insufflé de son Ame et qui a accepté cette responsabilité. Le Coran dit « En vérité, nous avons proposé le dépôt de la foi aux Cieux, à la terre et aux montagnes, mais tous refusèrent d’en assumer la responsabilité et en furent effrayés, alors que l’homme, par comble d’ignorance et d’iniquité s’en est chargé. »16. Si l’homme ne veille pas sur ce dépôt (Amana), et s’il le néglige, il devient injuste et ignorant selon la conception coranique. Dans le livre d’exemples de la Torah il est dit : « Je suis la compréhension, à moi la puissance, ma récolte vaut mieux que l’or et l’argent purs. Tous tes biens précieux lui sont inégalables. » Et dans l’Evangile : « Ainsi vous connaîtrez la vérité et la vérité vous rendra libres»17 et « Un de ceux qui étaient avec Jésus tira son épée, frappa le serviteur du grand prêtre et lui coupa l’oreille. » Jésus lui dit alors : « remets ton épée à sa place car tous ceux qui prennent l’épée périront par l’épée »18. Ce qui m’a poussé d’intituler mon livre « La doctrine du premier fils d’Adam de la non-violence » est la narration de cette histoire dans la Torah dans les premiers livres de l’Ancien Testament tel qu’elle fut racontée dans Sourate El Maida « La Table » parmi l’un des derniers révélés du Coran. « Racontes leur l’histoire des deux fils d’Adam telle qu’elle s’est déroulée. Chacun des deux frères avait fait une offrande ; mais celle de l’un fut acceptée, alors que celle de l’autre ne le fut point : ‘Je te tuerais’, dit ce dernier à son frère qui lui répond : ‘Que veux-tu, Dieu n’accepte que de ceux qu’ils le craignent ! Et si tu portes la main sur moi pour me tuer, je n’en ferias pas de même car je crains trop mon Seigneur, le maître de l’univers, pour commettre un pareil crime ! Je préfère que tu te charges, seul, de mes péchés et des tiens, et tu seras alors voué à la Géhenne qui est la juste récompense des criminels.’ Mais n’obéissant qu’à son instinct bestial le deuxième fils d’Adam (Caïn) fut entraîné au meurtre de son frère. Il le tua donc et se trouva de ce fait du nombre des réprouvés. Dieu envoya alors un corbeau qui se mit à gratter le sol pour lui indiquer comment inhumer le cadavre de son frère. Alors le meurtrier s’écria ‘Malheur à moi ! Suis-je donc incapable d’imiter ce corbeau et d’ensevelir la dépouille de mon frère’ et, depuis lors il ne cessa d’être rongé par d’intenses remords. Voilà pourquoi nous avons édicter cette loi au fils d’Israël : ‘Quiconque tue un être humain non convaincu de meurtre ou de sédition sur la terre est considéré comme le meurtrier de l’humanité toute entière. Quiconque sauve la vie d’un seul être humain est considéré comme ayant sauvé la vie de l’humanité toute entière !’ Malgré les multiples et irréfutables preuves qui leur furent apportées par Nos prophètes, beaucoup d’entre eux n’en continuèrent pas moins à commettre des excès sur la terre. »19. Les adeptes de ces Livres représentent plus de la moitié de l’humanité qui se répandent sur les cinq continents. Ils seront contraints d’accepter la démocratie qui est une invention humaine basée sur la science et les expériences vécues. L’univers entier est au service de l’être humain et est à sa disposition comme il est exprimé dans la Torah et le Coran. Celui-ci dit : « Dieu est Témoin, et avec Lui les anges et les initiés parmi les hommes qu’il n’y a que de divinité que Lui, Lui, le Dieu de la justice. Il n’y a en vérité de divinité que Lui, le puissant, le sage. »20 Et il dit « Dieu vous prescrit de restituer les dépôts à leurs propriétaires et de vous montrer équitables quand vous êtes appelés à juger vos semblables. C’est là une noble mission que Dieu vous exhorte à remplir. Dieu entend tout, voit tout. »21. Et il dit « La bonne action et la mauvaise action ne sont pas pareilles. Rends le bien pour le mal, et tu verras ton ennemi se muer en fervent allié ! Mais une telle grandeur d’âme est seulement le privilège de ceux qui savent faire preuve de patience et de ceux qui sont touchés par une grâce peu commune. »22. Le Coran procure la liberté de penser : il insiste : «Dis : ‘la Vérité émane de votre Seigneur. Croira qui voudra, niera qui voudra !’ »23. La mécréance ne fait pas l’objet d’un châtiment dans la vie ici bas. Le mécréant et le croyant ont les mêmes devoirs et les mêmes droits. La justice coranique est universelle. Le Coran interdit voire menace d’être injuste envers un non croyant quelle que soit sa pensée. (L’apostasie est une invention purement idéologique inventée par les Amaouites pour liquider leurs rivaux politiques.). Ce qui est strictement interdit par dessus tout est de contraindre les gens à embrasser ou quitter une quelconque doctrine. La justice est pareille et pour le croyant et le non croyant. Aucun n’a le droit d’imposer ses idées, son idéologie, son dogme, par la contrainte et la violence. Chacun, selon l’équation égalitaire, a le droit de faire la propagande pour sa philosophie tant qu’il ne pratique pas la contrainte, la violence et la brutalité car là celles-ci sont contre l’idée de l’humain. La contrainte et la violence ne donne ni la foi ni façonne la mécréance. Une vraie religion révélée ne contraint point. Celui qui accepte la mort en refusant la contrainte et la violence en s’accrochant à sa propre la foi et à sa pensée, est selon moi un adepte du fils Adam, un disciple de Socrate ainsi que tous ceux qui scellent la pacte divin et le pacte de la liberté de l’homme en ses croyances. La raison humaine a atteint ce principe par l’invention de la démocratie. Les turques ont précédés le reste des musulmans dans leur acte de foi dans la démocratie lorsqu ‘ils ont répondu aux américains qui voulaient emprunter le passage pour envahir l’Irak, ils ont rétorqué, « nous devons consulter notre peuple ». L’actuel président turque dans son premier discours a déclaré la foi de son gouvernement en la démocratie. Celui qui convainc son peuple par les idées a le droit de les gouverner. Il a également le droit de garantir toutes les libertés. La voie de la non-violence équivaut à la non contrainte dans le dogme, dans la politique, dans la fondation familiale, etc. Le 2 février 2008, j’ai reçu chez moi dans mon village Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), la visite de l’ambassadeur de l’Inde à Damas qui a entendu d’un certain Jawdat Saïd qui prêche la non-violence. Je lui ai fait savoir combien «j’étais flatté par la visite de l’ambassadeur du pays de Gandhi. J’ai ajouté comment quelqu’un comme moi voit son pays. Vous êtes, selon moi, la plus grande démocratie au monde. Le nombre d’habitants de l’Inde est plus supérieur que la somme des habitants de l’URSS, l’UE et les USA. Vous avez toutes les confessions du monde, tous les courants musulmans et chrétiens en plus des religions orientales, et malgré tout vous êtes une vraie démocratie. Cependant, si vous êtes fidèles aux principes non-violents de Gandhi, vous n’aurez point céder à la tentation de posséder la bombe nucléaire. Gandhi ne faisait aucune distinction entre un oppresseur hindou et un oppresseur anglais. Vous êtes maintenant candidat à devenir un membre permanent à l’ONU. Si vous accepteriez d’avoir le droit de veto, votre réputation s’effondrerait à nos yeux, nous serions déçus. Ce que nous voulons par contre est que vous oeuvriez à abolir ce paragraphe ou cet article injuste dans l’espoir qu’un jour l’ONU devienne une démocratie réelle. » Nous ne craignons pas que la justice soit vaincue dans le monde. En vérité, ceux qui refusent la justice sont les privilégiés qui ne sont pas prêts à abandonner volontairement leurs privilèges. Ceux qui comprennent bien le concept de la justice sont les déshérités, les opprimés qui représentent les 80 % de la population mondiale et profitent seulement de 20% de la richesse du monde. Nous qui croyons à l’exigence de la justice, nous devons nous émanciper et émanciper les autres. Je vous suis très reconnaissant, cher Jean-Marie Muller, avec votre œuvre monumentale qui incite à la prise de conscience des vertus des principes de la philosophie non-violente. J’ai eu la chance de lire une partie de cette œuvre, que je vais d’ailleurs relire, qui ouvre les yeux à ceux qui ont désespéré d’une éventuelle possibilité du changement de l’ordre social. Si nous saisissons ce qui s’est vraiment passé dans notre histoire mondiale et comprenons comment les privilégiés se sont donnés des avantages lorsqu’ils ont gagné la guerre par la guerre et la violence, alors si Hitler avait gagné la guerre, il n’aurait pas fait aussi pire que ce que fait l’ONU actuellement. Herbert G. Wells, auteur de « The Outline of History » dit : « Celui qui possède le strict minimum du savoir des Livres révélés, saura, et s’il saura, refusera que l’homme s’instaure comme être divin. » Le droit de veto est une sorte de déification, divination, imposée aux déshérités. Parmi les longues histoires du Coran, des fois concises et d’autres fois longues et détaillées, est l’histoire de Moïse et du Pharaon de telle manière que le nom de Moïse est cité 100 fois et celui de Pharaon, plus de 70 fois. Le Coran donne la parole au Pharaon (symbole des hommes politiques injustes), Hâmân (symbole des hommes de la religion injustes), karoun (symbole des riches injustes), les magiciens, les femmes, etc… A titre d’exemple Pharaon dit : « Après quoi, il tourna le dos et s’en alla rassembler ses hommes et leur déclara : ‘je suis votre Seigneur le plus puissant’ »24 « S’adressant alors aux dignitaires, Pharaon dit : ‘vous n’avez pas, que je sache, une autre dieu que moi ! Et toi Hâmân, fais-moi cuire des briques et construis moi une tour pour que je monte jusqu’au Dieu de Moïse ! Je suis certain que Moïse est un imposteur.’ »25 « ‘Si tu adores un autre divinité que moi, je te jetterais en prison’ s’écria Pharaon »26 « Les magiciens se prosternèrent alors face au sol en disant : ‘nous croyons au Seigneur d’Aaron (frère de Moïse) et de Moïse !’ ‘Quoi !’ dit Pharaon. Vous vous êtes ralliés à Moïse sans prendre mon accord ? C’est sans doute lui votre chef qui vous a enseigné la magie. Je vais vous faire couper les mains et les pieds en ordre croisé et vous faire crucifier sur des troncs de palmiers. Et vous saurez qui de nous dispose du châtiment le plus sévère et le plus durable ! »27. « Comment osez-vous, s’écria Pharaon, vous convertir à son culte sans que je vous y autorise ? C’est là un complot que vous avez ourdi dans la citée en chasser les habitants ! Vous allez voir ! Je vous ferais couper une main d’un côté et un pied de l’autre avant de vous faire tous crucifier !»28 « Ce que je vous propose, repris Pharaon, est le meilleur parti à prendre, à mon avis, et la solution que je vous indique est sûrement la bonne. »29. Toutefois, à propos du Pharaon Dieu dit : « Nous avons envoyé aussi Moïse, nanti de Nos signes et d’une preuve réelle, à Pharaon et à ses dignitaires. Mais ces derniers suivirent l’ordre de Pharaon ; bien que son ordre fut dénué de toute sagesse »30. Il n’est pas permis à tout un chacun de croire que avec sa permission. Ce que Moïse et son frère Aaron ont vécu avec Pharaon, est arrivé aussi à Abraham, à Noé, à tous les prophètes ainsi qu’à Socrate, Gandhi, et vous-même cher frère Jean-Marie Muller. Les hommes seront contraints de s’unir comme fut unie l’UE. Les apôtres de la non-violence préparent la voie à cette union basée sur l’exigence de la justice afin que personne ne soit au dessus des lois. Une parole du prophète Mohammad véhicule la même idée : « Ont péri ceux qui vont, ont précédés qui ne punissait pas l’élite quand elle viole la loi. Cependant, quand le faible commet un délit ils appliquent sur lui la loi. ». Dans cette logique, la loi s’applique sur les faibles et protège les élites. C’est ainsi que les prophètes refusent le favoritisme envers n’importe qui et qui soient au dessus des lois. L’idée de mécréance selon les prophètes est l’injustice, et l’acte de foi est la justice envers tous les hommes. La justice est la religion de Dieu. Le Coran dit « Mais Dieu veillait à l’exécution d’un arrêt pris par Lui de toute éternité pour que pérît, en connaissance de cause, celui que devait périr, et survécu à la mêlée, en connaissance de cause celui qui devait survivre. »31 Et le Coran cite aussi comme loi universelle : « Ton Seigneur, en effet, ne saurait anéantir injustement les citées dont les habitants sont vertueux »32 et il dit « Ton Seigneur n’anéantit jamais les citées avant d’envoyer dans leur métropole un messager pour leur réciter Nos versets, car Nous n’avons à anéantir que les citées dont les habitants sont injustes. »33 Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, notre rencontre et votre texte a enrichi ma foi dans la foi de l’homme et de son avenir. Le Coran dit sur les prophètes : « Et lorsque, à la fin, les prophètes désespérés du succès de leur mission et croyaient qu’on les prenait pour des imposteurs, Nous leur envoyons Notre secours et Nous sauvions qui Nous voulions, sans que jamais nos rigueurs fussent détournés de la gent criminelle »34. Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, l’origine et la fin du monde ne commence ni ne finit pas avec notre génération. Je souhaite que nous oeuvrons et nous nous entraidons pour établir la piété et la bienveillance « Que l’aversion que vous ressentez pour ce qui vous ont empêché naguère de vous approcher de la mosquée sacrée ne vous pousse pas à commettre des agressions ! Soyez plutôt solidaires dans la charité et la piété et non dans le péché et l’agression ! »35 et que nous ne oeuvrerons pas donc dans la violence et l’agression. Il faut que l’on veille à être témoins de la vérité et que l’on ait le courage de la dire. « Je prends le temps à témoin que l’humanité court à sa perte, hormis ceux qui croient pratiquants les bonnes œuvres, se recommandent mutuellement la droiture et se recommandent mutuellement l’endurance. »36. L’homme commence à peine à comprendre, pour que son existence ait un sens, doit comprendre que non existence dans ce monde n’est point un hasard ni une absurdité ni un jeu. L’existence de l’homme a un sens et doit être au service d’une cause. La noble cause qui puisse exister est de faire stopper l’injustice et la violence. Il est honteux que les humains s’entretuent entre eux à l’aube du 21ème siècle. Je vous remercie, cher frère Jean-Marie Muller, ô fils d’Adam. Nous devons rester fidèles à l’homme et à l’humain même s’il se trompe et commet des fautes. L’une des grandes morales de Jésus lorsqu’il l’interrogea « combien de fois, est-il permis à mon frère d’être en faute envers moi ? Alors est-ce que je lui pardonne jusqu’à sept fois ? Jésus répondit « Je n’ai pas dit sept fois mais soixante dix fois sept fois. »37. Autrement dit mon frère Jean-Marie, nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon. L’une des dernières paroles de Jésus fut « O Dieu ! Pardonne-leur car ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font. »38 Merci encore une fois cher frère Jean-Marie. Et engageons nos vies au service de l’homme et de l’humanité. Jésus est envoyé pour qu’il soit au service des autres et non qu’il soit servi. Ton frère Jawdat Saïd Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), Syrie 11 Octobre 2008 Traduction du Dr Driss Bellahcene Révision par Driss Oumehdi et Isabelle Cros-Oumehdi ==FootNotes== 1. Jean-Marie Muller, « Visite à Jawdat Saïd » page 1, 2008 traduit en arabe par Mohamed Ali Abdeljalil 2. Ibid., page 1 3. Eknath Easwaran, « A man to match his mountains : Badshah Khan, Nonviolent soldier of Islam » 4. Publication du centre palestinien des études de non-violence, Jérusalem 1987 5. Mathieu 7 :15 6. Matthieu 7, 16 à 20 7. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Abeilles 16:78, page 275 8. Ibid., Sourate Le Tonnerre 13:17, page 251 9. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 10. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 11. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 12. Voir http://www.aljazeera.net/Channel/archive/archive?ArchiveId=90935 Pour les œuvres complètes (écrites et vidéo) de Jawdat Saïd, www.jawdatsaid.net 13. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Le Fer 57:25, page 541 14. Ibid., Sourate Les Abeilles 16 :36, page 271 15. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:64, page 58 16. Ibid., Sourate Les Coalisés 33:72, page 427 17. Luc 8:32 18. Mathieu : 26 : 51-52 19. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:27 à 32, pages 112 et 113 20. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3 :18, page 52 21. Ibid., Sourate Les Femmes 4:58, page 87 22. Ibid., Sourate Les Versets détaillés 41:34, page 480 23. Ibid., Sourate La Caverne 18:29, page 297 24. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Arracheurs 79:22 à 24, page 584 25. Ibid., Sourate Le Récit 28:38, page 390 26. Ibid., Sourate Les Poètes 26:29, page 368 27. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Taha 20:70 et 71, page 316 28. Ibid., Sourate Les Murailles 7:123 et 124, page 165 29. Ibid., Sourate Le Pardonneur 40:29, page 470 30. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:96 et 97, page 232 31. Ibid., Sourate Les Prises de guerre 8:42, page 182 32. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:117, page 234 33. Ibid., Sourate Le récit 28:59, page 392 34. Ibid., Sourate Joseph 12:110, page 248 35. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:2, page 106 36. Ibid., Sourate Le Temps 103 :1 à 3, page 601 37. Mathieu 31:18 38. Luc 23 :33 83 77 2009-05-08T19:33:16Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir ==L’exigence du pardon== Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous aime, pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs aiment ceux qui les aiment et si vous faites du bien seulement à ceux qui vous font du bien pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs en font autant. » L’Evangile ; traduction biblique, Villiers le bel ; France, Luc 6 :32-33 p175 « Vous [musulmans], vous les traitez en amis alors qu’ils vous traitent en ennemis et vous croyez au livre dans sa totalité, pendant que quand ils vous rencontrent, vous disent qu’ils sont eux aussi des croyants. Mais dès qu’ils se trouvent seuls ils se mordent les doigts de colère contre vous. Dis leur ‘puissiez vous mourir de rage’ Dieu connaît si bien le fond de leur pensée ». Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:119, page 65 Au nom de Dieu et paix sur tous les Hommes qui luttent pour la justice Cher frère, Apôtre de la non-violence, Jean-Marie Muller, [[File:Jawdat.jpg‎|right]] La rencontre qui eut lieu entre nous fut heureuse, originale et fructueuse. Lorsque Gandhi l’hindou rencontra le français Romain Rolland, en se serrant la main ils se dirent « nous sommes deux citoyens étrangers à cette terre, univers » ; et moi quand j’ai rencontré le petit fils de Gandhi, Aron Gandhi, à Washington, je lui ai rappelé ce que son grand père a dit à Romain Rolland en ajoutant ceci : « nous ne sommes plus des citoyens étrangers ». Et lorsque j’ai rencontré le Dalaï Lama à Rome, je lui ai adressé une critique d’après ce que j’ai entendu de lui « Tu me rappelles Socrate, celui qui a refusé se faire exiler ou de s’expatrier en disant que : le pays vers lequel je m’exilerai est identique à celui-ci que je quitterai, je ne m’exilerai point et j’assumerai tout cela. Il fut condamné à mort, accepta le verdict en toute sérénité et but la ciguë sans aucune hésitation. ». J’imagine maintenant quelle fut la conception du monde dans lequel Socrate vécu et comment il vit l’avenir de l’humanité, et comment il donna l’exemple aux futurs sages en leur suggérant comment ils doivent se comporter à une pareille épreuve. J’ai ajouté au Dalaï Lama « Socrate n’imaginait pas q’un pays l’aurait accueilli, alors que vous, Dalaï Lama, êtes accueilli aujourd’hui dans plusieurs pays avec respect et bon accueil. » Il me répondit : « cependant, mon pays m’y est interdit de vivre ». Il raconta après que l’un de ses disciples qui se châtièrent dans les camps de rétention, lui a dit lorsqu’il l’a rencontré : « j’ai atteint un degré tel que j’ai eu peur de changer d’opinion ». Le Dalaï Lama lui dit alors « as-tu craint le pire, la mort ? » et lui répondit « Non, je craignais la perte de mon amour envers ceux qui me châtiaient et de les haïr par la suite ». Le texte que vous avez écrit sur ma philosophie de la non-violence, ô mon frère Jean-Marie Muller, lors notre rencontre, vous m’avez rangé parmi « les premiers penseurs musulmans qui ont déployé un incroyable effort pour introduire le concept de non-violence dans le monde musulman. »1 et que mon livre « semble sans conteste original et fécond »2. Ce paragraphe me rappelle une foule de prétentions. Quand j’ai rencontré Aron Gandhi, il entamait l’écriture d’un livre sur Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ami intime de son grand père Gandhi. Ce dernier témoigna que Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ainsi que ses disciples les Pathans, avaient été les artisans légendaires de la non-violence dans les régions montagneuses à la frontière nord de l’Inde britannique. Eknath Easwaran, penseur non-violent hindou, lui a consacré un livre bien documenté, écrit en anglais3 et traduit en arabe par Ibrahim Atta sous le titre «Homme et non tous les hommes : Badshah Khan, Soldat de la non-violence en Islam ».4 Lors d’un colloque portant sur la non-violence chez les musulmans tenu à Washington, j’ai rencontré Moubarak Awad l’apôtre de la non-violence, palestinien, de confession chrétienne et Wahid Khan l’hindou. J’ai discuté avec Moubarak Awad sur les sources de ma pensée non-violente et sur mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam » ; cette histoire été racontée dans le Livre (sefer) de la genèse, l’un des premiers livres de l’ancien testament, ainsi que dans les dernières Sourate selon la hiérarchie de la révélation coranique. Moubarak Awad me dit « Il a lu tous les écrits des adeptes de la non-violence, s’est précipité pour les rencontrer et il n’a jamais vu un pareil style auquel j’invite les gens dans la non-violence. ». A ce moment là, je ne prêtais pas attention à ce que disait Moubarak Awad, mais lorsque, vous, frère Jean-Marie, avez dit à propos de mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam : le problème de la violence dans le monde musulman » ; « ce livre paraît original et fécond », m’a fait rappelé de ce que Moubarak Awad, avait dit et comment il n’a jamais entendu quelqu’un aborder ce sujet comme je le traite. Et lorsque vous avez dit de mon œuvre qu’elle est originale et féconde, j’ai ressenti que vous m’aviez compris et que vous avez compris pourquoi j’ai laissé les expériences non6violentes des militants non-violents et je suis allé puiser dans l’histoire et la mythologie. Et comme vous avez signalé et cité, cher frère, dans votre texte « Visite à Jawdat Saïd », pour moi qu’il s’agisse d’un événement historique ou d’une histoire symbolique, ce qui me semble important dans cette histoire c’est la voie qu’elle indique pour que l’humanité s’élève au niveau de l’esprit et de l’âme. Il n’existe aucune hésitation ni aucun doute dans la position du premier fils d’Adam qui a accepté de mourir au lieu de tuer. Le premier fils d’Adam semble déterminé et il a la volonté de faire face aux conséquences de son attitude et de prendre toutes ses responsabilités. Je vois l’âme et la position non-violente du premier fils d’Adam, Abel, reprise par Socrate. Personne ne peut affirmer que l’histoire de Socrate est un mythe. Socrate a défié la violence de ses adversaires par le courage et la force de la raison et de l’âme. Socrate non seulement méprisaient leur violence mais se moquaient également de celle-ci. Herbert George Wells dans son oeuvre « The Outline of History » dit : « ceux qui se sont moqués de Jésus sont comme ceux qui jetant l’eau du bain du bébé jettent et l’eau et le bébé. ». Et je constate que les penseurs contemporains n’osent pas prononcer ou citer le nom de Jésus ni celui de l’Evangile comme s’ils se polluent, se salissent, en les prononçant. Voici donc quelques maladies de la laïcité, comme si ce que l’Eglise avait accompli lors de l’inquisition, avait aboutit à ne pas admettre même l’idée de l’existence d’un Jésus qui dit « La pierre tant méprisée par les maçons (artisans) est devenue la pierre angulaire ». Jésus dans un style scientifique, parlant des faux prophètes qui dans leur apparence sont des doux agneaux mais qui dans le fond sont des loups. Il est dit dans l’Evangile de Mathieu : «gardez–vous des faux prophètes ils viennent à vous déguisés en brebis, mais au-dedans ce sont des loups féroces. »5 Et quand on l’interrogea « O maître comment distingue-t-on les agneaux des loups ? » il répondit « Vous les reconnaîtrez à leur conduite On ne cueille pas des raisins sur des buissons d’épines, ni des figues sur chardons. Un bon arbre produit de bons fruits et un arbre malade de mauvais fruits. Un bon arbre ne peut pas produire de mauvais fruits ni un arbre malade de bons fruits. Tout arbre qui ne produit pas de bons fruits est coupé puis jeté au feu. Ainsi donc, vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite»6. Le philosophe Russel dit « celui qui dit que le feu brûle, parle d’une expérience et d’un raisonnement scientifique » alors Russel continue que le dit de Jésus «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un raisonnement scientifique. Nous avons l’impression que l’homme est incapable de comprendre l’évolution des capacités humaines. L’homme a découvert son histoire ignorée. L’homme ne savait pas que l’homme avait vécu longtemps avant de découvrir le feu. Une fois découvert, il a appris à le rallumer, il a appris l’agriculture avant même qu’il domestique les animaux. Il vivait comme le reste des êtres vivants, se nourrissant de ce que la terre lui offre spontanément. Il a fait de la parole une écriture lisible ce qui distingue l’homme de l’animal. Ainsi, l’homme a pu conserver la pensée des autres qui auparavant se perdait avec la mort de ses artisans. Grâce au développement du cerveau, le système nerveux est devenu capable de faire la part des choses, de faire le lien entre la cause et l’effet. Son appareil phonatoire a pu développer et est devenu capable de nommer les choses. La parole lui a permis de transmettre ce que son cerveau « sa pensée » lui dicte à d’autres. L’homme naît ignorant, ne savant rien. Ainsi dans le Coran, dans la Sourate «Les Abeilles », dit : « Dieu vous a fait naître du ventre de vos mères, dénués de tout savoir, et vous a donné l’ouïe, la vue, et l’intelligence. Peut-être lui en serez-vous reconnaissants ? »7. Il est clair qu’à sa naissance, l’homme ne connaît aucune langue ni aucune religion, cependant, il naît doté d’une capacité d’apprendre une langue, n’importe laquelle, d’embrasser n’importe quelle religion mais quand on applique la règle dictée par Jésus on peut alors distinguer d’entre les différents fruits, le véritable du faux prophète, distinguer le vrai du faux et distinguer la vérité du mensonge et de l’illusion. Moi, maintenant, je n’arrive pas, O mon frère Jean-Marie, à exprimer avec clarté ou expliquer avec force, comment le droit de veto est la cause capitale de la déchéance et de la décadence du monde. De nos jours, la démocratie que les européens exercent leur permet de ne pas recourir à la force militaire pour s’ouvrir les uns sur les autres contrairement à ce que firent Hitler et Napoléon dont la mission fut un échec. Ainsi, grâce à la démocratie, les autres pays voisins de l’Europe, s’avancent vers elle en lui disant acceptez-nous selon vos conditions, laissez nous adhérer à votre union démocratique. Ceci est un fait nouveau dans l’histoire de l’humanité sinon on aurait mal compris ce que signifie vraiment le savoir ou la science dont Russel avait dit que le feu brûle et avait subtilement ajouté qu’il reconnaît que la définition de Jésus : «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un style aussi scientifique. Cher Jean-Marie, vous avez dit à propos de l’abrogation dans le Coran qu’elle est toujours d’actualité et que je plaide pour que les versets qui correspondent le mieux aux exigences de la justice abrogent ceux qui y correspondent le moins. En vérité le Coran nous appuie : « Il fait descendre du ciel de l’eau qui coule dans les vallées à la mesure de leur capacités, et le courant charrie l’écume qui surnage, à l’image du laitier qui se dégage de la fonte des métaux dont on fabrique et ustensiles. Dieu use de cette image pour bien établir la différence qu’il y a entre le vrai et le faux, car l’écume inconsistante s’en va au rebut, tandis que ce qui est utile aux hommes se dépose sur le terrain. Ainsi, Dieu propose des paraboles utiles. »8. Ainsi est la loi de l’existence. Et je trouve que l’union européenne est la réalisation du savoir divin et son application sur l’humain. Quand Dieu a dit aux anges : « Puis vint le jour dit aux anges : je vais installer un représentant sur la terre »9, ils ont répliqué décrivant l’homme comme non méritant d’une telle mission parce qu’il va faire régner le mal et y faire couler le sang : « Vas-tu établir quelqu’un qui y fera régner le mal et y rependra le sang, alors que nous chantons ta gloire et célébrons tes louanges »10. Et le Seigneur leur répondit : « Ce que je sais dépasse votre entendement.»11. Ainsi l’expérience de l’union européenne approuve le savoir divin sur l’humain et blâme et dément les prétentions des anges comme elle dément ceux qui continuent à tuer les humains. L’une des conditions d’adhésion à l’union européenne est l’abolition de la peine de mort. La Turquie a aboli la peine de mort afin de se faire accepter au sein de cette union et c’est ainsi que le leader kurde Abdellah Oujalan a échappé à la peine de mort. Cher frère Jean-Marie, je pense que nous partageons la même interprétation de l’histoire. Quand je contemple l’histoire du petit pays qui est le Japon, le seul pays qui a vraiment connu l’enfer de la bombe atomique et qui n’a pas déclaré une guerre de libération comme l’Algérie ou le Vietnam, - les américains eux-mêmes ont chassé les colonisateurs anglais par la guerre et la violence - mais le Japon est devenu un pays développé et une puissance mondiale après les USA qui se précipite vers le déclin. Les japonais ne sont pas des musulmans ni des chrétiens ni non plus des juifs, mais fils d’Adam, doués de raison, et grâce à leur conception du monde, sont devenus, sans guerre libératrice, une puissance mondiale. C’est pourquoi je dis que ce n’est que lorsque l’ONU deviendra une véritable démocratie qui croit en la vraie démocratie et œuvre pour une véritable démocratie que peut installer la justice et par conséquent la paix mondiale. Je suis optimiste et je pense qu’on va bientôt y aboutir. J’ai dit lors d’une émission télé « L’orthodoxie et la vie » sur le canal Al Jazeera12 : « La guerre est morte. Elle est désuète. Elle n’est pratiquée que par les ignorants et ceux qui exploitent la crédulité des gens ». J’ajoute que « toute chose devenant savoir, science, se globalisera, devenant universelle. », je dis également que « tous les prophètes ont apporté avec eux un savoir, une idée de justice, d’équité et de paix. ». Le Coran dit « Nous avons envoyé nos prophètes munis de preuves irréfutables, et Nous avons descendre avec eux le livre et la balance, afin de faire régner la justice parmi les hommes »13. Ceci est un discours qui englobe tous les prophètes que nous connaissons à travers les livres saints. Toutefois, les prophètes que nous ne connaissons pas et qui ne sont pas cités par leurs noms dans le Coran, avaient la même mission selon le Coran. Le Coran dit : « En vérité, Nous avons envoyé un prophète à chaque communauté avec le message suivant : adorez Dieu et éloignez-vous du culte des idoles. Et si certaines de ces communautés ont suivi la voie du Seigneur, d’autres ont préféré le chemin de l’erreur. Allez donc de par le monde et voyez qu’elle a été la fin de ceux qui criaient au mensonge ! »14. Le Coran cite ici une preuve scientifique : « voyez » c’est-à-dire observez leur conduite, leurs fruits, les résultats de leurs actions afin d’identifier ou de connaître celui qui est droit de celui qui dévoie, celui qui est dans la réminiscence de celui qui est dans la fausseté. Le Coran dit « Dis : Ô gens des Ecritures ! Mettons nous d’accord sur une formule valable pour nous et pour vous, à savoir de n’adorer de Dieu seul, de rien lui associer et de ne pas nous prendre les uns les autres pour des maîtres en dehors de Dieu. S’ils s’y refusent, dites leur : soyez témoin que, en ce qui nous concerne, notre soumission à Dieu est totale et entière. »15. Je saisi de cet appel « O gens des Ecritures » non seulement ceux qui ont reçu une révélation mais aussi tout un chacun qui sait lire. En effet, celui qui sait lire appartient aux « gens d’Ecritures » car il a acquis la capacité et le moyen pour étudier toutes les religions et toute la pensée humaine. Je dis, et j’insiste, que si la démocratie aboutit aux Nations Unies la parole juste et l’appel des prophètes, se réaliseront. Je vois que dans n’importe quelle constitution démocratique, il doit y avoir la liberté de croire et la liberté de penser ainsi que la liberté de propager nos croyances et nos pensées. Chacun a le droit de penser et de croire ce qu’il veut quand il veut. Et s’il arrive à convaincre les gens et à les faire convertir à ses pensées et à ses dogmes sans violence, c’est « Hallal » - licite - pour lui. L’invitation à une formule valable c’est le mot qu’il faut mettre dans n’importe quelle équation mathématique [=] deux lignes parallèles, c’est-à-dire, je mets entre vous, moi et le monde, ce mot dont le signe mathématique est le symbole [=]. C’est selon cette loi que les astres se meuvent dans leur orbite. Si cette loi s’altère, le monde s’écroule. Le maintien de ces astres dans leur trajectoire et orbite est la conséquence de cette juste équation. Cette loi qui commande les astres commande aussi les sociétés. La société où la justice est absente, s’écroule incontestablement et l’histoire en témoigne. Ainsi, le non usage des armes ni la possession de celles-ci n’a pas empêché le Japon de devenir une puissance mondiale. En revanche, cela n’a pas empêché l’effondrement de l’URSS en dépit de son arsenal nucléaire sans être attaqué par un ennemi extérieur. Il s’est effondré de son propre intérieur avec la complicité des actions clandestines non-violentes de ses propres dissidents. Le Coran considère que ces événements sont un témoignage que la violence et tous les moyens qu’elle use, n’ont pas de pouvoir ni de prise sur l’homme dont Dieu a insufflé de son Ame et qui a accepté cette responsabilité. Le Coran dit « En vérité, nous avons proposé le dépôt de la foi aux Cieux, à la terre et aux montagnes, mais tous refusèrent d’en assumer la responsabilité et en furent effrayés, alors que l’homme, par comble d’ignorance et d’iniquité s’en est chargé. »16. Si l’homme ne veille pas sur ce dépôt (Amana), et s’il le néglige, il devient injuste et ignorant selon la conception coranique. Dans le livre d’exemples de la Torah il est dit : « Je suis la compréhension, à moi la puissance, ma récolte vaut mieux que l’or et l’argent purs. Tous tes biens précieux lui sont inégalables. » Et dans l’Evangile : « Ainsi vous connaîtrez la vérité et la vérité vous rendra libres»17 et « Un de ceux qui étaient avec Jésus tira son épée, frappa le serviteur du grand prêtre et lui coupa l’oreille. » Jésus lui dit alors : « remets ton épée à sa place car tous ceux qui prennent l’épée périront par l’épée »18. Ce qui m’a poussé d’intituler mon livre « La doctrine du premier fils d’Adam de la non-violence » est la narration de cette histoire dans la Torah dans les premiers livres de l’Ancien Testament tel qu’elle fut racontée dans Sourate El Maida « La Table » parmi l’un des derniers révélés du Coran. « Racontes leur l’histoire des deux fils d’Adam telle qu’elle s’est déroulée. Chacun des deux frères avait fait une offrande ; mais celle de l’un fut acceptée, alors que celle de l’autre ne le fut point : ‘Je te tuerais’, dit ce dernier à son frère qui lui répond : ‘Que veux-tu, Dieu n’accepte que de ceux qu’ils le craignent ! Et si tu portes la main sur moi pour me tuer, je n’en ferias pas de même car je crains trop mon Seigneur, le maître de l’univers, pour commettre un pareil crime ! Je préfère que tu te charges, seul, de mes péchés et des tiens, et tu seras alors voué à la Géhenne qui est la juste récompense des criminels.’ Mais n’obéissant qu’à son instinct bestial le deuxième fils d’Adam (Caïn) fut entraîné au meurtre de son frère. Il le tua donc et se trouva de ce fait du nombre des réprouvés. Dieu envoya alors un corbeau qui se mit à gratter le sol pour lui indiquer comment inhumer le cadavre de son frère. Alors le meurtrier s’écria ‘Malheur à moi ! Suis-je donc incapable d’imiter ce corbeau et d’ensevelir la dépouille de mon frère’ et, depuis lors il ne cessa d’être rongé par d’intenses remords. Voilà pourquoi nous avons édicter cette loi au fils d’Israël : ‘Quiconque tue un être humain non convaincu de meurtre ou de sédition sur la terre est considéré comme le meurtrier de l’humanité toute entière. Quiconque sauve la vie d’un seul être humain est considéré comme ayant sauvé la vie de l’humanité toute entière !’ Malgré les multiples et irréfutables preuves qui leur furent apportées par Nos prophètes, beaucoup d’entre eux n’en continuèrent pas moins à commettre des excès sur la terre. »19. Les adeptes de ces Livres représentent plus de la moitié de l’humanité qui se répandent sur les cinq continents. Ils seront contraints d’accepter la démocratie qui est une invention humaine basée sur la science et les expériences vécues. L’univers entier est au service de l’être humain et est à sa disposition comme il est exprimé dans la Torah et le Coran. Celui-ci dit : « Dieu est Témoin, et avec Lui les anges et les initiés parmi les hommes qu’il n’y a que de divinité que Lui, Lui, le Dieu de la justice. Il n’y a en vérité de divinité que Lui, le puissant, le sage. »20 Et il dit « Dieu vous prescrit de restituer les dépôts à leurs propriétaires et de vous montrer équitables quand vous êtes appelés à juger vos semblables. C’est là une noble mission que Dieu vous exhorte à remplir. Dieu entend tout, voit tout. »21. Et il dit « La bonne action et la mauvaise action ne sont pas pareilles. Rends le bien pour le mal, et tu verras ton ennemi se muer en fervent allié ! Mais une telle grandeur d’âme est seulement le privilège de ceux qui savent faire preuve de patience et de ceux qui sont touchés par une grâce peu commune. »22. Le Coran procure la liberté de penser : il insiste : «Dis : ‘la Vérité émane de votre Seigneur. Croira qui voudra, niera qui voudra !’ »23. La mécréance ne fait pas l’objet d’un châtiment dans la vie ici bas. Le mécréant et le croyant ont les mêmes devoirs et les mêmes droits. La justice coranique est universelle. Le Coran interdit voire menace d’être injuste envers un non croyant quelle que soit sa pensée. (L’apostasie est une invention purement idéologique inventée par les Amaouites pour liquider leurs rivaux politiques.). Ce qui est strictement interdit par dessus tout est de contraindre les gens à embrasser ou quitter une quelconque doctrine. La justice est pareille et pour le croyant et le non croyant. Aucun n’a le droit d’imposer ses idées, son idéologie, son dogme, par la contrainte et la violence. Chacun, selon l’équation égalitaire, a le droit de faire la propagande pour sa philosophie tant qu’il ne pratique pas la contrainte, la violence et la brutalité car là celles-ci sont contre l’idée de l’humain. La contrainte et la violence ne donne ni la foi ni façonne la mécréance. Une vraie religion révélée ne contraint point. Celui qui accepte la mort en refusant la contrainte et la violence en s’accrochant à sa propre la foi et à sa pensée, est selon moi un adepte du fils Adam, un disciple de Socrate ainsi que tous ceux qui scellent la pacte divin et le pacte de la liberté de l’homme en ses croyances. La raison humaine a atteint ce principe par l’invention de la démocratie. Les turques ont précédés le reste des musulmans dans leur acte de foi dans la démocratie lorsqu ‘ils ont répondu aux américains qui voulaient emprunter le passage pour envahir l’Irak, ils ont rétorqué, « nous devons consulter notre peuple ». L’actuel président turque dans son premier discours a déclaré la foi de son gouvernement en la démocratie. Celui qui convainc son peuple par les idées a le droit de les gouverner. Il a également le droit de garantir toutes les libertés. La voie de la non-violence équivaut à la non contrainte dans le dogme, dans la politique, dans la fondation familiale, etc. Le 2 février 2008, j’ai reçu chez moi dans mon village Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), la visite de l’ambassadeur de l’Inde à Damas qui a entendu d’un certain Jawdat Saïd qui prêche la non-violence. Je lui ai fait savoir combien «j’étais flatté par la visite de l’ambassadeur du pays de Gandhi. J’ai ajouté comment quelqu’un comme moi voit son pays. Vous êtes, selon moi, la plus grande démocratie au monde. Le nombre d’habitants de l’Inde est plus supérieur que la somme des habitants de l’URSS, l’UE et les USA. Vous avez toutes les confessions du monde, tous les courants musulmans et chrétiens en plus des religions orientales, et malgré tout vous êtes une vraie démocratie. Cependant, si vous êtes fidèles aux principes non-violents de Gandhi, vous n’aurez point céder à la tentation de posséder la bombe nucléaire. Gandhi ne faisait aucune distinction entre un oppresseur hindou et un oppresseur anglais. Vous êtes maintenant candidat à devenir un membre permanent à l’ONU. Si vous accepteriez d’avoir le droit de veto, votre réputation s’effondrerait à nos yeux, nous serions déçus. Ce que nous voulons par contre est que vous oeuvriez à abolir ce paragraphe ou cet article injuste dans l’espoir qu’un jour l’ONU devienne une démocratie réelle. » Nous ne craignons pas que la justice soit vaincue dans le monde. En vérité, ceux qui refusent la justice sont les privilégiés qui ne sont pas prêts à abandonner volontairement leurs privilèges. Ceux qui comprennent bien le concept de la justice sont les déshérités, les opprimés qui représentent les 80 % de la population mondiale et profitent seulement de 20% de la richesse du monde. Nous qui croyons à l’exigence de la justice, nous devons nous émanciper et émanciper les autres. Je vous suis très reconnaissant, cher Jean-Marie Muller, avec votre œuvre monumentale qui incite à la prise de conscience des vertus des principes de la philosophie non-violente. J’ai eu la chance de lire une partie de cette œuvre, que je vais d’ailleurs relire, qui ouvre les yeux à ceux qui ont désespéré d’une éventuelle possibilité du changement de l’ordre social. Si nous saisissons ce qui s’est vraiment passé dans notre histoire mondiale et comprenons comment les privilégiés se sont donnés des avantages lorsqu’ils ont gagné la guerre par la guerre et la violence, alors si Hitler avait gagné la guerre, il n’aurait pas fait aussi pire que ce que fait l’ONU actuellement. Herbert G. Wells, auteur de « The Outline of History » dit : « Celui qui possède le strict minimum du savoir des Livres révélés, saura, et s’il saura, refusera que l’homme s’instaure comme être divin. » Le droit de veto est une sorte de déification, divination, imposée aux déshérités. Parmi les longues histoires du Coran, des fois concises et d’autres fois longues et détaillées, est l’histoire de Moïse et du Pharaon de telle manière que le nom de Moïse est cité 100 fois et celui de Pharaon, plus de 70 fois. Le Coran donne la parole au Pharaon (symbole des hommes politiques injustes), Hâmân (symbole des hommes de la religion injustes), karoun (symbole des riches injustes), les magiciens, les femmes, etc… A titre d’exemple Pharaon dit : « Après quoi, il tourna le dos et s’en alla rassembler ses hommes et leur déclara : ‘je suis votre Seigneur le plus puissant’ »24 « S’adressant alors aux dignitaires, Pharaon dit : ‘vous n’avez pas, que je sache, une autre dieu que moi ! Et toi Hâmân, fais-moi cuire des briques et construis moi une tour pour que je monte jusqu’au Dieu de Moïse ! Je suis certain que Moïse est un imposteur.’ »25 « ‘Si tu adores un autre divinité que moi, je te jetterais en prison’ s’écria Pharaon »26 « Les magiciens se prosternèrent alors face au sol en disant : ‘nous croyons au Seigneur d’Aaron (frère de Moïse) et de Moïse !’ ‘Quoi !’ dit Pharaon. Vous vous êtes ralliés à Moïse sans prendre mon accord ? C’est sans doute lui votre chef qui vous a enseigné la magie. Je vais vous faire couper les mains et les pieds en ordre croisé et vous faire crucifier sur des troncs de palmiers. Et vous saurez qui de nous dispose du châtiment le plus sévère et le plus durable ! »27. « Comment osez-vous, s’écria Pharaon, vous convertir à son culte sans que je vous y autorise ? C’est là un complot que vous avez ourdi dans la citée en chasser les habitants ! Vous allez voir ! Je vous ferais couper une main d’un côté et un pied de l’autre avant de vous faire tous crucifier !»28 « Ce que je vous propose, repris Pharaon, est le meilleur parti à prendre, à mon avis, et la solution que je vous indique est sûrement la bonne. »29. Toutefois, à propos du Pharaon Dieu dit : « Nous avons envoyé aussi Moïse, nanti de Nos signes et d’une preuve réelle, à Pharaon et à ses dignitaires. Mais ces derniers suivirent l’ordre de Pharaon ; bien que son ordre fut dénué de toute sagesse »30. Il n’est pas permis à tout un chacun de croire que avec sa permission. Ce que Moïse et son frère Aaron ont vécu avec Pharaon, est arrivé aussi à Abraham, à Noé, à tous les prophètes ainsi qu’à Socrate, Gandhi, et vous-même cher frère Jean-Marie Muller. Les hommes seront contraints de s’unir comme fut unie l’UE. Les apôtres de la non-violence préparent la voie à cette union basée sur l’exigence de la justice afin que personne ne soit au dessus des lois. Une parole du prophète Mohammad véhicule la même idée : « Ont péri ceux qui vont, ont précédés qui ne punissait pas l’élite quand elle viole la loi. Cependant, quand le faible commet un délit ils appliquent sur lui la loi. ». Dans cette logique, la loi s’applique sur les faibles et protège les élites. C’est ainsi que les prophètes refusent le favoritisme envers n’importe qui et qui soient au dessus des lois. L’idée de mécréance selon les prophètes est l’injustice, et l’acte de foi est la justice envers tous les hommes. La justice est la religion de Dieu. Le Coran dit « Mais Dieu veillait à l’exécution d’un arrêt pris par Lui de toute éternité pour que pérît, en connaissance de cause, celui que devait périr, et survécu à la mêlée, en connaissance de cause celui qui devait survivre. »31 Et le Coran cite aussi comme loi universelle : « Ton Seigneur, en effet, ne saurait anéantir injustement les citées dont les habitants sont vertueux »32 et il dit « Ton Seigneur n’anéantit jamais les citées avant d’envoyer dans leur métropole un messager pour leur réciter Nos versets, car Nous n’avons à anéantir que les citées dont les habitants sont injustes. »33 Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, notre rencontre et votre texte a enrichi ma foi dans la foi de l’homme et de son avenir. Le Coran dit sur les prophètes : « Et lorsque, à la fin, les prophètes désespérés du succès de leur mission et croyaient qu’on les prenait pour des imposteurs, Nous leur envoyons Notre secours et Nous sauvions qui Nous voulions, sans que jamais nos rigueurs fussent détournés de la gent criminelle »34. Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, l’origine et la fin du monde ne commence ni ne finit pas avec notre génération. Je souhaite que nous oeuvrons et nous nous entraidons pour établir la piété et la bienveillance « Que l’aversion que vous ressentez pour ce qui vous ont empêché naguère de vous approcher de la mosquée sacrée ne vous pousse pas à commettre des agressions ! Soyez plutôt solidaires dans la charité et la piété et non dans le péché et l’agression ! »35 et que nous ne oeuvrerons pas donc dans la violence et l’agression. Il faut que l’on veille à être témoins de la vérité et que l’on ait le courage de la dire. « Je prends le temps à témoin que l’humanité court à sa perte, hormis ceux qui croient pratiquants les bonnes œuvres, se recommandent mutuellement la droiture et se recommandent mutuellement l’endurance. »36. L’homme commence à peine à comprendre, pour que son existence ait un sens, doit comprendre que non existence dans ce monde n’est point un hasard ni une absurdité ni un jeu. L’existence de l’homme a un sens et doit être au service d’une cause. La noble cause qui puisse exister est de faire stopper l’injustice et la violence. Il est honteux que les humains s’entretuent entre eux à l’aube du 21ème siècle. Je vous remercie, cher frère Jean-Marie Muller, ô fils d’Adam. Nous devons rester fidèles à l’homme et à l’humain même s’il se trompe et commet des fautes. L’une des grandes morales de Jésus lorsqu’il l’interrogea « combien de fois, est-il permis à mon frère d’être en faute envers moi ? Alors est-ce que je lui pardonne jusqu’à sept fois ? Jésus répondit « Je n’ai pas dit sept fois mais soixante dix fois sept fois. »37. Autrement dit mon frère Jean-Marie, nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon. L’une des dernières paroles de Jésus fut « O Dieu ! Pardonne-leur car ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font. »38 Merci encore une fois cher frère Jean-Marie. Et engageons nos vies au service de l’homme et de l’humanité. Jésus est envoyé pour qu’il soit au service des autres et non qu’il soit servi. Ton frère Jawdat Saïd Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), Syrie 11 Octobre 2008 Traduction du Dr Driss Bellahcene Révision par Driss Oumehdi et Isabelle Cros-Oumehdi ==FootNotes== 1. Jean-Marie Muller, « Visite à Jawdat Saïd » page 1, 2008 traduit en arabe par Mohamed Ali Abdeljalil 2. Ibid., page 1 3. Eknath Easwaran, « A man to match his mountains : Badshah Khan, Nonviolent soldier of Islam » 4. Publication du centre palestinien des études de non-violence, Jérusalem 1987 5. Mathieu 7 :15 6. Matthieu 7, 16 à 20 7. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Abeilles 16:78, page 275 8. Ibid., Sourate Le Tonnerre 13:17, page 251 9. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 10. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 11. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 12. Voir http://www.aljazeera.net/Channel/archive/archive?ArchiveId=90935 Pour les œuvres complètes (écrites et vidéo) de Jawdat Saïd, www.jawdatsaid.net 13. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Le Fer 57:25, page 541 14. Ibid., Sourate Les Abeilles 16 :36, page 271 15. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:64, page 58 16. Ibid., Sourate Les Coalisés 33:72, page 427 17. Luc 8:32 18. Mathieu : 26 : 51-52 19. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:27 à 32, pages 112 et 113 20. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3 :18, page 52 21. Ibid., Sourate Les Femmes 4:58, page 87 22. Ibid., Sourate Les Versets détaillés 41:34, page 480 23. Ibid., Sourate La Caverne 18:29, page 297 24. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Arracheurs 79:22 à 24, page 584 25. Ibid., Sourate Le Récit 28:38, page 390 26. Ibid., Sourate Les Poètes 26:29, page 368 27. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Taha 20:70 et 71, page 316 28. Ibid., Sourate Les Murailles 7:123 et 124, page 165 29. Ibid., Sourate Le Pardonneur 40:29, page 470 30. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:96 et 97, page 232 31. Ibid., Sourate Les Prises de guerre 8:42, page 182 32. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:117, page 234 33. Ibid., Sourate Le récit 28:59, page 392 34. Ibid., Sourate Joseph 12:110, page 248 35. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:2, page 106 36. Ibid., Sourate Le Temps 103 :1 à 3, page 601 37. Mathieu 31:18 38. Luc 23 :33 77 2009-05-08T19:25:05Z Admin 1 Created page with 'Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir ==L’exigence du pardon== Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous...' wikitext text/x-wiki Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir ==L’exigence du pardon== Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous aime, pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs aiment ceux qui les aiment et si vous faites du bien seulement à ceux qui vous font du bien pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs en font autant. » L’Evangile ; traduction biblique, Villiers le bel ; France, Luc 6 :32-33 p175 « Vous [musulmans], vous les traitez en amis alors qu’ils vous traitent en ennemis et vous croyez au livre dans sa totalité, pendant que quand ils vous rencontrent, vous disent qu’ils sont eux aussi des croyants. Mais dès qu’ils se trouvent seuls ils se mordent les doigts de colère contre vous. Dis leur ‘puissiez vous mourir de rage’ Dieu connaît si bien le fond de leur pensée ». Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:119, page 65 Au nom de Dieu et paix sur tous les Hommes qui luttent pour la justice Cher frère, Apôtre de la non-violence, Jean-Marie Muller, [[File:jawdat.fra2|right]] La rencontre qui eut lieu entre nous fut heureuse, originale et fructueuse. Lorsque Gandhi l’hindou rencontra le français Romain Rolland, en se serrant la main ils se dirent « nous sommes deux citoyens étrangers à cette terre, univers » ; et moi quand j’ai rencontré le petit fils de Gandhi, Aron Gandhi, à Washington, je lui ai rappelé ce que son grand père a dit à Romain Rolland en ajoutant ceci : « nous ne sommes plus des citoyens étrangers ». Et lorsque j’ai rencontré le Dalaï Lama à Rome, je lui ai adressé une critique d’après ce que j’ai entendu de lui « Tu me rappelles Socrate, celui qui a refusé se faire exiler ou de s’expatrier en disant que : le pays vers lequel je m’exilerai est identique à celui-ci que je quitterai, je ne m’exilerai point et j’assumerai tout cela. Il fut condamné à mort, accepta le verdict en toute sérénité et but la ciguë sans aucune hésitation. ». J’imagine maintenant quelle fut la conception du monde dans lequel Socrate vécu et comment il vit l’avenir de l’humanité, et comment il donna l’exemple aux futurs sages en leur suggérant comment ils doivent se comporter à une pareille épreuve. J’ai ajouté au Dalaï Lama « Socrate n’imaginait pas q’un pays l’aurait accueilli, alors que vous, Dalaï Lama, êtes accueilli aujourd’hui dans plusieurs pays avec respect et bon accueil. » Il me répondit : « cependant, mon pays m’y est interdit de vivre ». Il raconta après que l’un de ses disciples qui se châtièrent dans les camps de rétention, lui a dit lorsqu’il l’a rencontré : « j’ai atteint un degré tel que j’ai eu peur de changer d’opinion ». Le Dalaï Lama lui dit alors « as-tu craint le pire, la mort ? » et lui répondit « Non, je craignais la perte de mon amour envers ceux qui me châtiaient et de les haïr par la suite ». Le texte que vous avez écrit sur ma philosophie de la non-violence, ô mon frère Jean-Marie Muller, lors notre rencontre, vous m’avez rangé parmi « les premiers penseurs musulmans qui ont déployé un incroyable effort pour introduire le concept de non-violence dans le monde musulman. »1 et que mon livre « semble sans conteste original et fécond »2. Ce paragraphe me rappelle une foule de prétentions. Quand j’ai rencontré Aron Gandhi, il entamait l’écriture d’un livre sur Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ami intime de son grand père Gandhi. Ce dernier témoigna que Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ainsi que ses disciples les Pathans, avaient été les artisans légendaires de la non-violence dans les régions montagneuses à la frontière nord de l’Inde britannique. Eknath Easwaran, penseur non-violent hindou, lui a consacré un livre bien documenté, écrit en anglais3 et traduit en arabe par Ibrahim Atta sous le titre «Homme et non tous les hommes : Badshah Khan, Soldat de la non-violence en Islam ».4 Lors d’un colloque portant sur la non-violence chez les musulmans tenu à Washington, j’ai rencontré Moubarak Awad l’apôtre de la non-violence, palestinien, de confession chrétienne et Wahid Khan l’hindou. J’ai discuté avec Moubarak Awad sur les sources de ma pensée non-violente et sur mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam » ; cette histoire été racontée dans le Livre (sefer) de la genèse, l’un des premiers livres de l’ancien testament, ainsi que dans les dernières Sourate selon la hiérarchie de la révélation coranique. Moubarak Awad me dit « Il a lu tous les écrits des adeptes de la non-violence, s’est précipité pour les rencontrer et il n’a jamais vu un pareil style auquel j’invite les gens dans la non-violence. ». A ce moment là, je ne prêtais pas attention à ce que disait Moubarak Awad, mais lorsque, vous, frère Jean-Marie, avez dit à propos de mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam : le problème de la violence dans le monde musulman » ; « ce livre paraît original et fécond », m’a fait rappelé de ce que Moubarak Awad, avait dit et comment il n’a jamais entendu quelqu’un aborder ce sujet comme je le traite. Et lorsque vous avez dit de mon œuvre qu’elle est originale et féconde, j’ai ressenti que vous m’aviez compris et que vous avez compris pourquoi j’ai laissé les expériences non6violentes des militants non-violents et je suis allé puiser dans l’histoire et la mythologie. Et comme vous avez signalé et cité, cher frère, dans votre texte « Visite à Jawdat Saïd », pour moi qu’il s’agisse d’un événement historique ou d’une histoire symbolique, ce qui me semble important dans cette histoire c’est la voie qu’elle indique pour que l’humanité s’élève au niveau de l’esprit et de l’âme. Il n’existe aucune hésitation ni aucun doute dans la position du premier fils d’Adam qui a accepté de mourir au lieu de tuer. Le premier fils d’Adam semble déterminé et il a la volonté de faire face aux conséquences de son attitude et de prendre toutes ses responsabilités. Je vois l’âme et la position non-violente du premier fils d’Adam, Abel, reprise par Socrate. Personne ne peut affirmer que l’histoire de Socrate est un mythe. Socrate a défié la violence de ses adversaires par le courage et la force de la raison et de l’âme. Socrate non seulement méprisaient leur violence mais se moquaient également de celle-ci. Herbert George Wells dans son oeuvre « The Outline of History » dit : « ceux qui se sont moqués de Jésus sont comme ceux qui jetant l’eau du bain du bébé jettent et l’eau et le bébé. ». Et je constate que les penseurs contemporains n’osent pas prononcer ou citer le nom de Jésus ni celui de l’Evangile comme s’ils se polluent, se salissent, en les prononçant. Voici donc quelques maladies de la laïcité, comme si ce que l’Eglise avait accompli lors de l’inquisition, avait aboutit à ne pas admettre même l’idée de l’existence d’un Jésus qui dit « La pierre tant méprisée par les maçons (artisans) est devenue la pierre angulaire ». Jésus dans un style scientifique, parlant des faux prophètes qui dans leur apparence sont des doux agneaux mais qui dans le fond sont des loups. Il est dit dans l’Evangile de Mathieu : «gardez–vous des faux prophètes ils viennent à vous déguisés en brebis, mais au-dedans ce sont des loups féroces. »5 Et quand on l’interrogea « O maître comment distingue-t-on les agneaux des loups ? » il répondit « Vous les reconnaîtrez à leur conduite On ne cueille pas des raisins sur des buissons d’épines, ni des figues sur chardons. Un bon arbre produit de bons fruits et un arbre malade de mauvais fruits. Un bon arbre ne peut pas produire de mauvais fruits ni un arbre malade de bons fruits. Tout arbre qui ne produit pas de bons fruits est coupé puis jeté au feu. Ainsi donc, vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite»6. Le philosophe Russel dit « celui qui dit que le feu brûle, parle d’une expérience et d’un raisonnement scientifique » alors Russel continue que le dit de Jésus «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un raisonnement scientifique. Nous avons l’impression que l’homme est incapable de comprendre l’évolution des capacités humaines. L’homme a découvert son histoire ignorée. L’homme ne savait pas que l’homme avait vécu longtemps avant de découvrir le feu. Une fois découvert, il a appris à le rallumer, il a appris l’agriculture avant même qu’il domestique les animaux. Il vivait comme le reste des êtres vivants, se nourrissant de ce que la terre lui offre spontanément. Il a fait de la parole une écriture lisible ce qui distingue l’homme de l’animal. Ainsi, l’homme a pu conserver la pensée des autres qui auparavant se perdait avec la mort de ses artisans. Grâce au développement du cerveau, le système nerveux est devenu capable de faire la part des choses, de faire le lien entre la cause et l’effet. Son appareil phonatoire a pu développer et est devenu capable de nommer les choses. La parole lui a permis de transmettre ce que son cerveau « sa pensée » lui dicte à d’autres. L’homme naît ignorant, ne savant rien. Ainsi dans le Coran, dans la Sourate «Les Abeilles », dit : « Dieu vous a fait naître du ventre de vos mères, dénués de tout savoir, et vous a donné l’ouïe, la vue, et l’intelligence. Peut-être lui en serez-vous reconnaissants ? »7. Il est clair qu’à sa naissance, l’homme ne connaît aucune langue ni aucune religion, cependant, il naît doté d’une capacité d’apprendre une langue, n’importe laquelle, d’embrasser n’importe quelle religion mais quand on applique la règle dictée par Jésus on peut alors distinguer d’entre les différents fruits, le véritable du faux prophète, distinguer le vrai du faux et distinguer la vérité du mensonge et de l’illusion. Moi, maintenant, je n’arrive pas, O mon frère Jean-Marie, à exprimer avec clarté ou expliquer avec force, comment le droit de veto est la cause capitale de la déchéance et de la décadence du monde. De nos jours, la démocratie que les européens exercent leur permet de ne pas recourir à la force militaire pour s’ouvrir les uns sur les autres contrairement à ce que firent Hitler et Napoléon dont la mission fut un échec. Ainsi, grâce à la démocratie, les autres pays voisins de l’Europe, s’avancent vers elle en lui disant acceptez-nous selon vos conditions, laissez nous adhérer à votre union démocratique. Ceci est un fait nouveau dans l’histoire de l’humanité sinon on aurait mal compris ce que signifie vraiment le savoir ou la science dont Russel avait dit que le feu brûle et avait subtilement ajouté qu’il reconnaît que la définition de Jésus : «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un style aussi scientifique. Cher Jean-Marie, vous avez dit à propos de l’abrogation dans le Coran qu’elle est toujours d’actualité et que je plaide pour que les versets qui correspondent le mieux aux exigences de la justice abrogent ceux qui y correspondent le moins. En vérité le Coran nous appuie : « Il fait descendre du ciel de l’eau qui coule dans les vallées à la mesure de leur capacités, et le courant charrie l’écume qui surnage, à l’image du laitier qui se dégage de la fonte des métaux dont on fabrique et ustensiles. Dieu use de cette image pour bien établir la différence qu’il y a entre le vrai et le faux, car l’écume inconsistante s’en va au rebut, tandis que ce qui est utile aux hommes se dépose sur le terrain. Ainsi, Dieu propose des paraboles utiles. »8. Ainsi est la loi de l’existence. Et je trouve que l’union européenne est la réalisation du savoir divin et son application sur l’humain. Quand Dieu a dit aux anges : « Puis vint le jour dit aux anges : je vais installer un représentant sur la terre »9, ils ont répliqué décrivant l’homme comme non méritant d’une telle mission parce qu’il va faire régner le mal et y faire couler le sang : « Vas-tu établir quelqu’un qui y fera régner le mal et y rependra le sang, alors que nous chantons ta gloire et célébrons tes louanges »10. Et le Seigneur leur répondit : « Ce que je sais dépasse votre entendement.»11. Ainsi l’expérience de l’union européenne approuve le savoir divin sur l’humain et blâme et dément les prétentions des anges comme elle dément ceux qui continuent à tuer les humains. L’une des conditions d’adhésion à l’union européenne est l’abolition de la peine de mort. La Turquie a aboli la peine de mort afin de se faire accepter au sein de cette union et c’est ainsi que le leader kurde Abdellah Oujalan a échappé à la peine de mort. Cher frère Jean-Marie, je pense que nous partageons la même interprétation de l’histoire. Quand je contemple l’histoire du petit pays qui est le Japon, le seul pays qui a vraiment connu l’enfer de la bombe atomique et qui n’a pas déclaré une guerre de libération comme l’Algérie ou le Vietnam, - les américains eux-mêmes ont chassé les colonisateurs anglais par la guerre et la violence - mais le Japon est devenu un pays développé et une puissance mondiale après les USA qui se précipite vers le déclin. Les japonais ne sont pas des musulmans ni des chrétiens ni non plus des juifs, mais fils d’Adam, doués de raison, et grâce à leur conception du monde, sont devenus, sans guerre libératrice, une puissance mondiale. C’est pourquoi je dis que ce n’est que lorsque l’ONU deviendra une véritable démocratie qui croit en la vraie démocratie et œuvre pour une véritable démocratie que peut installer la justice et par conséquent la paix mondiale. Je suis optimiste et je pense qu’on va bientôt y aboutir. J’ai dit lors d’une émission télé « L’orthodoxie et la vie » sur le canal Al Jazeera12 : « La guerre est morte. Elle est désuète. Elle n’est pratiquée que par les ignorants et ceux qui exploitent la crédulité des gens ». J’ajoute que « toute chose devenant savoir, science, se globalisera, devenant universelle. », je dis également que « tous les prophètes ont apporté avec eux un savoir, une idée de justice, d’équité et de paix. ». Le Coran dit « Nous avons envoyé nos prophètes munis de preuves irréfutables, et Nous avons descendre avec eux le livre et la balance, afin de faire régner la justice parmi les hommes »13. Ceci est un discours qui englobe tous les prophètes que nous connaissons à travers les livres saints. Toutefois, les prophètes que nous ne connaissons pas et qui ne sont pas cités par leurs noms dans le Coran, avaient la même mission selon le Coran. Le Coran dit : « En vérité, Nous avons envoyé un prophète à chaque communauté avec le message suivant : adorez Dieu et éloignez-vous du culte des idoles. Et si certaines de ces communautés ont suivi la voie du Seigneur, d’autres ont préféré le chemin de l’erreur. Allez donc de par le monde et voyez qu’elle a été la fin de ceux qui criaient au mensonge ! »14. Le Coran cite ici une preuve scientifique : « voyez » c’est-à-dire observez leur conduite, leurs fruits, les résultats de leurs actions afin d’identifier ou de connaître celui qui est droit de celui qui dévoie, celui qui est dans la réminiscence de celui qui est dans la fausseté. Le Coran dit « Dis : Ô gens des Ecritures ! Mettons nous d’accord sur une formule valable pour nous et pour vous, à savoir de n’adorer de Dieu seul, de rien lui associer et de ne pas nous prendre les uns les autres pour des maîtres en dehors de Dieu. S’ils s’y refusent, dites leur : soyez témoin que, en ce qui nous concerne, notre soumission à Dieu est totale et entière. »15. Je saisi de cet appel « O gens des Ecritures » non seulement ceux qui ont reçu une révélation mais aussi tout un chacun qui sait lire. En effet, celui qui sait lire appartient aux « gens d’Ecritures » car il a acquis la capacité et le moyen pour étudier toutes les religions et toute la pensée humaine. Je dis, et j’insiste, que si la démocratie aboutit aux Nations Unies la parole juste et l’appel des prophètes, se réaliseront. Je vois que dans n’importe quelle constitution démocratique, il doit y avoir la liberté de croire et la liberté de penser ainsi que la liberté de propager nos croyances et nos pensées. Chacun a le droit de penser et de croire ce qu’il veut quand il veut. Et s’il arrive à convaincre les gens et à les faire convertir à ses pensées et à ses dogmes sans violence, c’est « Hallal » - licite - pour lui. L’invitation à une formule valable c’est le mot qu’il faut mettre dans n’importe quelle équation mathématique [=] deux lignes parallèles, c’est-à-dire, je mets entre vous, moi et le monde, ce mot dont le signe mathématique est le symbole [=]. C’est selon cette loi que les astres se meuvent dans leur orbite. Si cette loi s’altère, le monde s’écroule. Le maintien de ces astres dans leur trajectoire et orbite est la conséquence de cette juste équation. Cette loi qui commande les astres commande aussi les sociétés. La société où la justice est absente, s’écroule incontestablement et l’histoire en témoigne. Ainsi, le non usage des armes ni la possession de celles-ci n’a pas empêché le Japon de devenir une puissance mondiale. En revanche, cela n’a pas empêché l’effondrement de l’URSS en dépit de son arsenal nucléaire sans être attaqué par un ennemi extérieur. Il s’est effondré de son propre intérieur avec la complicité des actions clandestines non-violentes de ses propres dissidents. Le Coran considère que ces événements sont un témoignage que la violence et tous les moyens qu’elle use, n’ont pas de pouvoir ni de prise sur l’homme dont Dieu a insufflé de son Ame et qui a accepté cette responsabilité. Le Coran dit « En vérité, nous avons proposé le dépôt de la foi aux Cieux, à la terre et aux montagnes, mais tous refusèrent d’en assumer la responsabilité et en furent effrayés, alors que l’homme, par comble d’ignorance et d’iniquité s’en est chargé. »16. Si l’homme ne veille pas sur ce dépôt (Amana), et s’il le néglige, il devient injuste et ignorant selon la conception coranique. Dans le livre d’exemples de la Torah il est dit : « Je suis la compréhension, à moi la puissance, ma récolte vaut mieux que l’or et l’argent purs. Tous tes biens précieux lui sont inégalables. » Et dans l’Evangile : « Ainsi vous connaîtrez la vérité et la vérité vous rendra libres»17 et « Un de ceux qui étaient avec Jésus tira son épée, frappa le serviteur du grand prêtre et lui coupa l’oreille. » Jésus lui dit alors : « remets ton épée à sa place car tous ceux qui prennent l’épée périront par l’épée »18. Ce qui m’a poussé d’intituler mon livre « La doctrine du premier fils d’Adam de la non-violence » est la narration de cette histoire dans la Torah dans les premiers livres de l’Ancien Testament tel qu’elle fut racontée dans Sourate El Maida « La Table » parmi l’un des derniers révélés du Coran. « Racontes leur l’histoire des deux fils d’Adam telle qu’elle s’est déroulée. Chacun des deux frères avait fait une offrande ; mais celle de l’un fut acceptée, alors que celle de l’autre ne le fut point : ‘Je te tuerais’, dit ce dernier à son frère qui lui répond : ‘Que veux-tu, Dieu n’accepte que de ceux qu’ils le craignent ! Et si tu portes la main sur moi pour me tuer, je n’en ferias pas de même car je crains trop mon Seigneur, le maître de l’univers, pour commettre un pareil crime ! Je préfère que tu te charges, seul, de mes péchés et des tiens, et tu seras alors voué à la Géhenne qui est la juste récompense des criminels.’ Mais n’obéissant qu’à son instinct bestial le deuxième fils d’Adam (Caïn) fut entraîné au meurtre de son frère. Il le tua donc et se trouva de ce fait du nombre des réprouvés. Dieu envoya alors un corbeau qui se mit à gratter le sol pour lui indiquer comment inhumer le cadavre de son frère. Alors le meurtrier s’écria ‘Malheur à moi ! Suis-je donc incapable d’imiter ce corbeau et d’ensevelir la dépouille de mon frère’ et, depuis lors il ne cessa d’être rongé par d’intenses remords. Voilà pourquoi nous avons édicter cette loi au fils d’Israël : ‘Quiconque tue un être humain non convaincu de meurtre ou de sédition sur la terre est considéré comme le meurtrier de l’humanité toute entière. Quiconque sauve la vie d’un seul être humain est considéré comme ayant sauvé la vie de l’humanité toute entière !’ Malgré les multiples et irréfutables preuves qui leur furent apportées par Nos prophètes, beaucoup d’entre eux n’en continuèrent pas moins à commettre des excès sur la terre. »19. Les adeptes de ces Livres représentent plus de la moitié de l’humanité qui se répandent sur les cinq continents. Ils seront contraints d’accepter la démocratie qui est une invention humaine basée sur la science et les expériences vécues. L’univers entier est au service de l’être humain et est à sa disposition comme il est exprimé dans la Torah et le Coran. Celui-ci dit : « Dieu est Témoin, et avec Lui les anges et les initiés parmi les hommes qu’il n’y a que de divinité que Lui, Lui, le Dieu de la justice. Il n’y a en vérité de divinité que Lui, le puissant, le sage. »20 Et il dit « Dieu vous prescrit de restituer les dépôts à leurs propriétaires et de vous montrer équitables quand vous êtes appelés à juger vos semblables. C’est là une noble mission que Dieu vous exhorte à remplir. Dieu entend tout, voit tout. »21. Et il dit « La bonne action et la mauvaise action ne sont pas pareilles. Rends le bien pour le mal, et tu verras ton ennemi se muer en fervent allié ! Mais une telle grandeur d’âme est seulement le privilège de ceux qui savent faire preuve de patience et de ceux qui sont touchés par une grâce peu commune. »22. Le Coran procure la liberté de penser : il insiste : «Dis : ‘la Vérité émane de votre Seigneur. Croira qui voudra, niera qui voudra !’ »23. La mécréance ne fait pas l’objet d’un châtiment dans la vie ici bas. Le mécréant et le croyant ont les mêmes devoirs et les mêmes droits. La justice coranique est universelle. Le Coran interdit voire menace d’être injuste envers un non croyant quelle que soit sa pensée. (L’apostasie est une invention purement idéologique inventée par les Amaouites pour liquider leurs rivaux politiques.). Ce qui est strictement interdit par dessus tout est de contraindre les gens à embrasser ou quitter une quelconque doctrine. La justice est pareille et pour le croyant et le non croyant. Aucun n’a le droit d’imposer ses idées, son idéologie, son dogme, par la contrainte et la violence. Chacun, selon l’équation égalitaire, a le droit de faire la propagande pour sa philosophie tant qu’il ne pratique pas la contrainte, la violence et la brutalité car là celles-ci sont contre l’idée de l’humain. La contrainte et la violence ne donne ni la foi ni façonne la mécréance. Une vraie religion révélée ne contraint point. Celui qui accepte la mort en refusant la contrainte et la violence en s’accrochant à sa propre la foi et à sa pensée, est selon moi un adepte du fils Adam, un disciple de Socrate ainsi que tous ceux qui scellent la pacte divin et le pacte de la liberté de l’homme en ses croyances. La raison humaine a atteint ce principe par l’invention de la démocratie. Les turques ont précédés le reste des musulmans dans leur acte de foi dans la démocratie lorsqu ‘ils ont répondu aux américains qui voulaient emprunter le passage pour envahir l’Irak, ils ont rétorqué, « nous devons consulter notre peuple ». L’actuel président turque dans son premier discours a déclaré la foi de son gouvernement en la démocratie. Celui qui convainc son peuple par les idées a le droit de les gouverner. Il a également le droit de garantir toutes les libertés. La voie de la non-violence équivaut à la non contrainte dans le dogme, dans la politique, dans la fondation familiale, etc. Le 2 février 2008, j’ai reçu chez moi dans mon village Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), la visite de l’ambassadeur de l’Inde à Damas qui a entendu d’un certain Jawdat Saïd qui prêche la non-violence. Je lui ai fait savoir combien «j’étais flatté par la visite de l’ambassadeur du pays de Gandhi. J’ai ajouté comment quelqu’un comme moi voit son pays. Vous êtes, selon moi, la plus grande démocratie au monde. Le nombre d’habitants de l’Inde est plus supérieur que la somme des habitants de l’URSS, l’UE et les USA. Vous avez toutes les confessions du monde, tous les courants musulmans et chrétiens en plus des religions orientales, et malgré tout vous êtes une vraie démocratie. Cependant, si vous êtes fidèles aux principes non-violents de Gandhi, vous n’aurez point céder à la tentation de posséder la bombe nucléaire. Gandhi ne faisait aucune distinction entre un oppresseur hindou et un oppresseur anglais. Vous êtes maintenant candidat à devenir un membre permanent à l’ONU. Si vous accepteriez d’avoir le droit de veto, votre réputation s’effondrerait à nos yeux, nous serions déçus. Ce que nous voulons par contre est que vous oeuvriez à abolir ce paragraphe ou cet article injuste dans l’espoir qu’un jour l’ONU devienne une démocratie réelle. » Nous ne craignons pas que la justice soit vaincue dans le monde. En vérité, ceux qui refusent la justice sont les privilégiés qui ne sont pas prêts à abandonner volontairement leurs privilèges. Ceux qui comprennent bien le concept de la justice sont les déshérités, les opprimés qui représentent les 80 % de la population mondiale et profitent seulement de 20% de la richesse du monde. Nous qui croyons à l’exigence de la justice, nous devons nous émanciper et émanciper les autres. Je vous suis très reconnaissant, cher Jean-Marie Muller, avec votre œuvre monumentale qui incite à la prise de conscience des vertus des principes de la philosophie non-violente. J’ai eu la chance de lire une partie de cette œuvre, que je vais d’ailleurs relire, qui ouvre les yeux à ceux qui ont désespéré d’une éventuelle possibilité du changement de l’ordre social. Si nous saisissons ce qui s’est vraiment passé dans notre histoire mondiale et comprenons comment les privilégiés se sont donnés des avantages lorsqu’ils ont gagné la guerre par la guerre et la violence, alors si Hitler avait gagné la guerre, il n’aurait pas fait aussi pire que ce que fait l’ONU actuellement. Herbert G. Wells, auteur de « The Outline of History » dit : « Celui qui possède le strict minimum du savoir des Livres révélés, saura, et s’il saura, refusera que l’homme s’instaure comme être divin. » Le droit de veto est une sorte de déification, divination, imposée aux déshérités. Parmi les longues histoires du Coran, des fois concises et d’autres fois longues et détaillées, est l’histoire de Moïse et du Pharaon de telle manière que le nom de Moïse est cité 100 fois et celui de Pharaon, plus de 70 fois. Le Coran donne la parole au Pharaon (symbole des hommes politiques injustes), Hâmân (symbole des hommes de la religion injustes), karoun (symbole des riches injustes), les magiciens, les femmes, etc… A titre d’exemple Pharaon dit : « Après quoi, il tourna le dos et s’en alla rassembler ses hommes et leur déclara : ‘je suis votre Seigneur le plus puissant’ »24 « S’adressant alors aux dignitaires, Pharaon dit : ‘vous n’avez pas, que je sache, une autre dieu que moi ! Et toi Hâmân, fais-moi cuire des briques et construis moi une tour pour que je monte jusqu’au Dieu de Moïse ! Je suis certain que Moïse est un imposteur.’ »25 « ‘Si tu adores un autre divinité que moi, je te jetterais en prison’ s’écria Pharaon »26 « Les magiciens se prosternèrent alors face au sol en disant : ‘nous croyons au Seigneur d’Aaron (frère de Moïse) et de Moïse !’ ‘Quoi !’ dit Pharaon. Vous vous êtes ralliés à Moïse sans prendre mon accord ? C’est sans doute lui votre chef qui vous a enseigné la magie. Je vais vous faire couper les mains et les pieds en ordre croisé et vous faire crucifier sur des troncs de palmiers. Et vous saurez qui de nous dispose du châtiment le plus sévère et le plus durable ! »27. « Comment osez-vous, s’écria Pharaon, vous convertir à son culte sans que je vous y autorise ? C’est là un complot que vous avez ourdi dans la citée en chasser les habitants ! Vous allez voir ! Je vous ferais couper une main d’un côté et un pied de l’autre avant de vous faire tous crucifier !»28 « Ce que je vous propose, repris Pharaon, est le meilleur parti à prendre, à mon avis, et la solution que je vous indique est sûrement la bonne. »29. Toutefois, à propos du Pharaon Dieu dit : « Nous avons envoyé aussi Moïse, nanti de Nos signes et d’une preuve réelle, à Pharaon et à ses dignitaires. Mais ces derniers suivirent l’ordre de Pharaon ; bien que son ordre fut dénué de toute sagesse »30. Il n’est pas permis à tout un chacun de croire que avec sa permission. Ce que Moïse et son frère Aaron ont vécu avec Pharaon, est arrivé aussi à Abraham, à Noé, à tous les prophètes ainsi qu’à Socrate, Gandhi, et vous-même cher frère Jean-Marie Muller. Les hommes seront contraints de s’unir comme fut unie l’UE. Les apôtres de la non-violence préparent la voie à cette union basée sur l’exigence de la justice afin que personne ne soit au dessus des lois. Une parole du prophète Mohammad véhicule la même idée : « Ont péri ceux qui vont, ont précédés qui ne punissait pas l’élite quand elle viole la loi. Cependant, quand le faible commet un délit ils appliquent sur lui la loi. ». Dans cette logique, la loi s’applique sur les faibles et protège les élites. C’est ainsi que les prophètes refusent le favoritisme envers n’importe qui et qui soient au dessus des lois. L’idée de mécréance selon les prophètes est l’injustice, et l’acte de foi est la justice envers tous les hommes. La justice est la religion de Dieu. Le Coran dit « Mais Dieu veillait à l’exécution d’un arrêt pris par Lui de toute éternité pour que pérît, en connaissance de cause, celui que devait périr, et survécu à la mêlée, en connaissance de cause celui qui devait survivre. »31 Et le Coran cite aussi comme loi universelle : « Ton Seigneur, en effet, ne saurait anéantir injustement les citées dont les habitants sont vertueux »32 et il dit « Ton Seigneur n’anéantit jamais les citées avant d’envoyer dans leur métropole un messager pour leur réciter Nos versets, car Nous n’avons à anéantir que les citées dont les habitants sont injustes. »33 Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, notre rencontre et votre texte a enrichi ma foi dans la foi de l’homme et de son avenir. Le Coran dit sur les prophètes : « Et lorsque, à la fin, les prophètes désespérés du succès de leur mission et croyaient qu’on les prenait pour des imposteurs, Nous leur envoyons Notre secours et Nous sauvions qui Nous voulions, sans que jamais nos rigueurs fussent détournés de la gent criminelle »34. Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, l’origine et la fin du monde ne commence ni ne finit pas avec notre génération. Je souhaite que nous oeuvrons et nous nous entraidons pour établir la piété et la bienveillance « Que l’aversion que vous ressentez pour ce qui vous ont empêché naguère de vous approcher de la mosquée sacrée ne vous pousse pas à commettre des agressions ! Soyez plutôt solidaires dans la charité et la piété et non dans le péché et l’agression ! »35 et que nous ne oeuvrerons pas donc dans la violence et l’agression. Il faut que l’on veille à être témoins de la vérité et que l’on ait le courage de la dire. « Je prends le temps à témoin que l’humanité court à sa perte, hormis ceux qui croient pratiquants les bonnes œuvres, se recommandent mutuellement la droiture et se recommandent mutuellement l’endurance. »36. L’homme commence à peine à comprendre, pour que son existence ait un sens, doit comprendre que non existence dans ce monde n’est point un hasard ni une absurdité ni un jeu. L’existence de l’homme a un sens et doit être au service d’une cause. La noble cause qui puisse exister est de faire stopper l’injustice et la violence. Il est honteux que les humains s’entretuent entre eux à l’aube du 21ème siècle. Je vous remercie, cher frère Jean-Marie Muller, ô fils d’Adam. Nous devons rester fidèles à l’homme et à l’humain même s’il se trompe et commet des fautes. L’une des grandes morales de Jésus lorsqu’il l’interrogea « combien de fois, est-il permis à mon frère d’être en faute envers moi ? Alors est-ce que je lui pardonne jusqu’à sept fois ? Jésus répondit « Je n’ai pas dit sept fois mais soixante dix fois sept fois. »37. Autrement dit mon frère Jean-Marie, nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon. L’une des dernières paroles de Jésus fut « O Dieu ! Pardonne-leur car ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font. »38 Merci encore une fois cher frère Jean-Marie. Et engageons nos vies au service de l’homme et de l’humanité. Jésus est envoyé pour qu’il soit au service des autres et non qu’il soit servi. Ton frère Jawdat Saïd Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), Syrie 11 Octobre 2008 Traduction du Dr Driss Bellahcene Révision par Driss Oumehdi et Isabelle Cros-Oumehdi ==FootNotes== 1. Jean-Marie Muller, « Visite à Jawdat Saïd » page 1, 2008 traduit en arabe par Mohamed Ali Abdeljalil 2. Ibid., page 1 3. Eknath Easwaran, « A man to match his mountains : Badshah Khan, Nonviolent soldier of Islam » 4. Publication du centre palestinien des études de non-violence, Jérusalem 1987 5. Mathieu 7 :15 6. Matthieu 7, 16 à 20 7. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Abeilles 16:78, page 275 8. Ibid., Sourate Le Tonnerre 13:17, page 251 9. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 10. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 11. Ibid., Sourate La Vache 2 :30, page 6 12. Voir http://www.aljazeera.net/Channel/archive/archive?ArchiveId=90935 Pour les œuvres complètes (écrites et vidéo) de Jawdat Saïd, www.jawdatsaid.net 13. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Le Fer 57:25, page 541 14. Ibid., Sourate Les Abeilles 16 :36, page 271 15. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:64, page 58 16. Ibid., Sourate Les Coalisés 33:72, page 427 17. Luc 8:32 18. Mathieu : 26 : 51-52 19. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:27 à 32, pages 112 et 113 20. Ibid., Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3 :18, page 52 21. Ibid., Sourate Les Femmes 4:58, page 87 22. Ibid., Sourate Les Versets détaillés 41:34, page 480 23. Ibid., Sourate La Caverne 18:29, page 297 24. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Les Arracheurs 79:22 à 24, page 584 25. Ibid., Sourate Le Récit 28:38, page 390 26. Ibid., Sourate Les Poètes 26:29, page 368 27. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate Taha 20:70 et 71, page 316 28. Ibid., Sourate Les Murailles 7:123 et 124, page 165 29. Ibid., Sourate Le Pardonneur 40:29, page 470 30. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:96 et 97, page 232 31. Ibid., Sourate Les Prises de guerre 8:42, page 182 32. Ibid., Sourate Hûd 11:117, page 234 33. Ibid., Sourate Le récit 28:59, page 392 34. Ibid., Sourate Joseph 12:110, page 248 35. Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Table 5:2, page 106 36. Ibid., Sourate Le Temps 103 :1 à 3, page 601 37. Mathieu 31:18 38. Luc 23 :33 0 38 74 2009-05-07T20:31:11Z Admin 1 Created page with ' Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir '''L’exigence du pardon '''Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous...' wikitext text/x-wiki Samedi 4 Octobre 2008 4 chawwal 1429 de l’Hijir '''L’exigence du pardon '''Nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon « Si vous aimez seulement ce qui vous aime, pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs aiment ceux qui les aiment et si vous faites du bien seulement à ceux qui vous font du bien pourquoi vous attendre à une reconnaissance particulière ? Même les pécheurs en font autant. » L’Evangile ; traduction biblique, Villiers le bel ; France, Luc 6 :32-33 p175 « Vous [musulmans], vous les traitez en amis alors qu’ils vous traitent en ennemis et vous croyez au livre dans sa totalité, pendant que quand ils vous rencontrent, vous disent qu’ils sont eux aussi des croyants. Mais dès qu’ils se trouvent seuls ils se mordent les doigts de colère contre vous. Dis leur ‘puissiez vous mourir de rage’ Dieu connaît si bien le fond de leur pensée ». Coran, Nouvelle traduction française du sens de ses versets par Mohamed Chiadmi, 2ème édition Tawhid 2005, Sourate La Famille d’Imran 3:119, page 65 Au nom de Dieu et paix sur tous les Hommes qui luttent pour la justice Cher frère, Apôtre de la non-violence, Jean-Marie Muller, La rencontre qui eut lieu entre nous fut heureuse, originale et fructueuse. Lorsque Gandhi l’hindou rencontra le français Romain Rolland, en se serrant la main ils se dirent « nous sommes deux citoyens étrangers à cette terre, univers » ; et moi quand j’ai rencontré le petit fils de Gandhi, Aron Gandhi, à Washington, je lui ai rappelé ce que son grand père a dit à Romain Rolland en ajoutant ceci : « nous ne sommes plus des citoyens étrangers ». Et lorsque j’ai rencontré le Dalaï Lama à Rome, je lui ai adressé une critique d’après ce que j’ai entendu de lui « Tu me rappelles Socrate, celui qui a refusé se faire exiler ou de s’expatrier en disant que : le pays vers lequel je m’exilerai est identique à celui-ci que je quitterai, je ne m’exilerai point et j’assumerai tout cela. Il fut condamné à mort, accepta le verdict en toute sérénité et but la ciguë sans aucune hésitation. ». J’imagine maintenant quelle fut la conception du monde dans lequel Socrate vécu et comment il vit l’avenir de l’humanité, et comment il donna l’exemple aux futurs sages en leur suggérant comment ils doivent se comporter à une pareille épreuve. J’ai ajouté au Dalaï Lama « Socrate n’imaginait pas q’un pays l’aurait accueilli, alors que vous, Dalaï Lama, êtes accueilli aujourd’hui dans plusieurs pays avec respect et bon accueil. » Il me répondit : « cependant, mon pays m’y est interdit de vivre ». Il raconta après que l’un de ses disciples qui se châtièrent dans les camps de rétention, lui a dit lorsqu’il l’a rencontré : « j’ai atteint un degré tel que j’ai eu peur de changer d’opinion ». Le Dalaï Lama lui dit alors « as-tu craint le pire, la mort ? » et lui répondit « Non, je craignais la perte de mon amour envers ceux qui me châtiaient et de les haïr par la suite ». Le texte que vous avez écrit sur ma philosophie de la non-violence, ô mon frère Jean-Marie Muller, lors notre rencontre, vous m’avez rangé parmi « les premiers penseurs musulmans qui ont déployé un incroyable effort pour introduire le concept de non-violence dans le monde musulman. » et que mon livre « semble sans conteste original et fécond » . Ce paragraphe me rappelle une foule de prétentions. Quand j’ai rencontré Aron Gandhi, il entamait l’écriture d’un livre sur Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ami intime de son grand père Gandhi. Ce dernier témoigna que Abdul Ghaffar Khan, ainsi que ses disciples les Pathans, avaient été les artisans légendaires de la non-violence dans les régions montagneuses à la frontière nord de l’Inde britannique. Eknath Easwaran, penseur non-violent hindou, lui a consacré un livre bien documenté, écrit en anglais et traduit en arabe par Ibrahim Atta sous le titre «Homme et non tous les hommes : Badshah Khan, Soldat de la non-violence en Islam ». Lors d’un colloque portant sur la non-violence chez les musulmans tenu à Washington, j’ai rencontré Moubarak Awad l’apôtre de la non-violence, palestinien, de confession chrétienne et Wahid Khan l’hindou. J’ai discuté avec Moubarak Awad sur les sources de ma pensée non-violente et sur mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam » ; cette histoire été racontée dans le Livre (sefer) de la genèse, l’un des premiers livres de l’ancien testament, ainsi que dans les dernières Sourate selon la hiérarchie de la révélation coranique. Moubarak Awad me dit « Il a lu tous les écrits des adeptes de la non-violence, s’est précipité pour les rencontrer et il n’a jamais vu un pareil style auquel j’invite les gens dans la non-violence. ». A ce moment là, je ne prêtais pas attention à ce que disait Moubarak Awad, mais lorsque, vous, frère Jean-Marie, avez dit à propos de mon livre « La doctrine de premier fils d’Adam : le problème de la violence dans le monde musulman » ; « ce livre paraît original et fécond », m’a fait rappelé de ce que Moubarak Awad, avait dit et comment il n’a jamais entendu quelqu’un aborder ce sujet comme je le traite. Et lorsque vous avez dit de mon œuvre qu’elle est originale et féconde, j’ai ressenti que vous m’aviez compris et que vous avez compris pourquoi j’ai laissé les expériences non6violentes des militants non-violents et je suis allé puiser dans l’histoire et la mythologie. Et comme vous avez signalé et cité, cher frère, dans votre texte « Visite à Jawdat Saïd », pour moi qu’il s’agisse d’un événement historique ou d’une histoire symbolique, ce qui me semble important dans cette histoire c’est la voie qu’elle indique pour que l’humanité s’élève au niveau de l’esprit et de l’âme. Il n’existe aucune hésitation ni aucun doute dans la position du premier fils d’Adam qui a accepté de mourir au lieu de tuer. Le premier fils d’Adam semble déterminé et il a la volonté de faire face aux conséquences de son attitude et de prendre toutes ses responsabilités. Je vois l’âme et la position non-violente du premier fils d’Adam, Abel, reprise par Socrate. Personne ne peut affirmer que l’histoire de Socrate est un mythe. Socrate a défié la violence de ses adversaires par le courage et la force de la raison et de l’âme. Socrate non seulement méprisaient leur violence mais se moquaient également de celle-ci. Herbert George Wells dans son oeuvre « The Outline of History » dit : « ceux qui se sont moqués de Jésus sont comme ceux qui jetant l’eau du bain du bébé jettent et l’eau et le bébé. ». Et je constate que les penseurs contemporains n’osent pas prononcer ou citer le nom de Jésus ni celui de l’Evangile comme s’ils se polluent, se salissent, en les prononçant. Voici donc quelques maladies de la laïcité, comme si ce que l’Eglise avait accompli lors de l’inquisition, avait aboutit à ne pas admettre même l’idée de l’existence d’un Jésus qui dit « La pierre tant méprisée par les maçons (artisans) est devenue la pierre angulaire ». Jésus dans un style scientifique, parlant des faux prophètes qui dans leur apparence sont des doux agneaux mais qui dans le fond sont des loups. Il est dit dans l’Evangile de Mathieu : «gardez–vous des faux prophètes ils viennent à vous déguisés en brebis, mais au-dedans ce sont des loups féroces. » Et quand on l’interrogea « O maître comment distingue-t-on les agneaux des loups ? » il répondit « Vous les reconnaîtrez à leur conduite On ne cueille pas des raisins sur des buissons d’épines, ni des figues sur chardons. Un bon arbre produit de bons fruits et un arbre malade de mauvais fruits. Un bon arbre ne peut pas produire de mauvais fruits ni un arbre malade de bons fruits. Tout arbre qui ne produit pas de bons fruits est coupé puis jeté au feu. Ainsi donc, vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» . Le philosophe Russel dit « celui qui dit que le feu brûle, parle d’une expérience et d’un raisonnement scientifique » alors Russel continue que le dit de Jésus «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un raisonnement scientifique. Nous avons l’impression que l’homme est incapable de comprendre l’évolution des capacités humaines. L’homme a découvert son histoire ignorée. L’homme ne savait pas que l’homme avait vécu longtemps avant de découvrir le feu. Une fois découvert, il a appris à le rallumer, il a appris l’agriculture avant même qu’il domestique les animaux. Il vivait comme le reste des êtres vivants, se nourrissant de ce que la terre lui offre spontanément. Il a fait de la parole une écriture lisible ce qui distingue l’homme de l’animal. Ainsi, l’homme a pu conserver la pensée des autres qui auparavant se perdait avec la mort de ses artisans. Grâce au développement du cerveau, le système nerveux est devenu capable de faire la part des choses, de faire le lien entre la cause et l’effet. Son appareil phonatoire a pu développer et est devenu capable de nommer les choses. La parole lui a permis de transmettre ce que son cerveau « sa pensée » lui dicte à d’autres. L’homme naît ignorant, ne savant rien. Ainsi dans le Coran, dans la Sourate «Les Abeilles », dit : « Dieu vous a fait naître du ventre de vos mères, dénués de tout savoir, et vous a donné l’ouïe, la vue, et l’intelligence. Peut-être lui en serez-vous reconnaissants ? » . Il est clair qu’à sa naissance, l’homme ne connaît aucune langue ni aucune religion, cependant, il naît doté d’une capacité d’apprendre une langue, n’importe laquelle, d’embrasser n’importe quelle religion mais quand on applique la règle dictée par Jésus on peut alors distinguer d’entre les différents fruits, le véritable du faux prophète, distinguer le vrai du faux et distinguer la vérité du mensonge et de l’illusion. Moi, maintenant, je n’arrive pas, O mon frère Jean-Marie, à exprimer avec clarté ou expliquer avec force, comment le droit de veto est la cause capitale de la déchéance et de la décadence du monde. De nos jours, la démocratie que les européens exercent leur permet de ne pas recourir à la force militaire pour s’ouvrir les uns sur les autres contrairement à ce que firent Hitler et Napoléon dont la mission fut un échec. Ainsi, grâce à la démocratie, les autres pays voisins de l’Europe, s’avancent vers elle en lui disant acceptez-nous selon vos conditions, laissez nous adhérer à votre union démocratique. Ceci est un fait nouveau dans l’histoire de l’humanité sinon on aurait mal compris ce que signifie vraiment le savoir ou la science dont Russel avait dit que le feu brûle et avait subtilement ajouté qu’il reconnaît que la définition de Jésus : «vous reconnaîtrez les faux prophètes à leur conduite» est un style aussi scientifique. Cher Jean-Marie, vous avez dit à propos de l’abrogation dans le Coran qu’elle est toujours d’actualité et que je plaide pour que les versets qui correspondent le mieux aux exigences de la justice abrogent ceux qui y correspondent le moins. En vérité le Coran nous appuie : « Il fait descendre du ciel de l’eau qui coule dans les vallées à la mesure de leur capacités, et le courant charrie l’écume qui surnage, à l’image du laitier qui se dégage de la fonte des métaux dont on fabrique et ustensiles. Dieu use de cette image pour bien établir la différence qu’il y a entre le vrai et le faux, car l’écume inconsistante s’en va au rebut, tandis que ce qui est utile aux hommes se dépose sur le terrain. Ainsi, Dieu propose des paraboles utiles. » . Ainsi est la loi de l’existence. Et je trouve que l’union européenne est la réalisation du savoir divin et son application sur l’humain. Quand Dieu a dit aux anges : « Puis vint le jour dit aux anges : je vais installer un représentant sur la terre » , ils ont répliqué décrivant l’homme comme non méritant d’une telle mission parce qu’il va faire régner le mal et y faire couler le sang : « Vas-tu établir quelqu’un qui y fera régner le mal et y rependra le sang, alors que nous chantons ta gloire et célébrons tes louanges » . Et le Seigneur leur répondit : « Ce que je sais dépasse votre entendement.» . Ainsi l’expérience de l’union européenne approuve le savoir divin sur l’humain et blâme et dément les prétentions des anges comme elle dément ceux qui continuent à tuer les humains. L’une des conditions d’adhésion à l’union européenne est l’abolition de la peine de mort. La Turquie a aboli la peine de mort afin de se faire accepter au sein de cette union et c’est ainsi que le leader kurde Abdellah Oujalan a échappé à la peine de mort. Cher frère Jean-Marie, je pense que nous partageons la même interprétation de l’histoire. Quand je contemple l’histoire du petit pays qui est le Japon, le seul pays qui a vraiment connu l’enfer de la bombe atomique et qui n’a pas déclaré une guerre de libération comme l’Algérie ou le Vietnam, - les américains eux-mêmes ont chassé les colonisateurs anglais par la guerre et la violence - mais le Japon est devenu un pays développé et une puissance mondiale après les USA qui se précipite vers le déclin. Les japonais ne sont pas des musulmans ni des chrétiens ni non plus des juifs, mais fils d’Adam, doués de raison, et grâce à leur conception du monde, sont devenus, sans guerre libératrice, une puissance mondiale. C’est pourquoi je dis que ce n’est que lorsque l’ONU deviendra une véritable démocratie qui croit en la vraie démocratie et œuvre pour une véritable démocratie que peut installer la justice et par conséquent la paix mondiale. Je suis optimiste et je pense qu’on va bientôt y aboutir. J’ai dit lors d’une émission télé « L’orthodoxie et la vie » sur le canal Al Jazeera : « La guerre est morte. Elle est désuète. Elle n’est pratiquée que par les ignorants et ceux qui exploitent la crédulité des gens ». J’ajoute que « toute chose devenant savoir, science, se globalisera, devenant universelle. », je dis également que « tous les prophètes ont apporté avec eux un savoir, une idée de justice, d’équité et de paix. ». Le Coran dit « Nous avons envoyé nos prophètes munis de preuves irréfutables, et Nous avons descendre avec eux le livre et la balance, afin de faire régner la justice parmi les hommes » . Ceci est un discours qui englobe tous les prophètes que nous connaissons à travers les livres saints. Toutefois, les prophètes que nous ne connaissons pas et qui ne sont pas cités par leurs noms dans le Coran, avaient la même mission selon le Coran. Le Coran dit : « En vérité, Nous avons envoyé un prophète à chaque communauté avec le message suivant : adorez Dieu et éloignez-vous du culte des idoles. Et si certaines de ces communautés ont suivi la voie du Seigneur, d’autres ont préféré le chemin de l’erreur. Allez donc de par le monde et voyez qu’elle a été la fin de ceux qui criaient au mensonge ! » . Le Coran cite ici une preuve scientifique : « voyez » c’est-à-dire observez leur conduite, leurs fruits, les résultats de leurs actions afin d’identifier ou de connaître celui qui est droit de celui qui dévoie, celui qui est dans la réminiscence de celui qui est dans la fausseté. Le Coran dit « Dis : Ô gens des Ecritures ! Mettons nous d’accord sur une formule valable pour nous et pour vous, à savoir de n’adorer de Dieu seul, de rien lui associer et de ne pas nous prendre les uns les autres pour des maîtres en dehors de Dieu. S’ils s’y refusent, dites leur : soyez témoin que, en ce qui nous concerne, notre soumission à Dieu est totale et entière. » . Je saisi de cet appel « O gens des Ecritures » non seulement ceux qui ont reçu une révélation mais aussi tout un chacun qui sait lire. En effet, celui qui sait lire appartient aux « gens d’Ecritures » car il a acquis la capacité et le moyen pour étudier toutes les religions et toute la pensée humaine. Je dis, et j’insiste, que si la démocratie aboutit aux Nations Unies la parole juste et l’appel des prophètes, se réaliseront. Je vois que dans n’importe quelle constitution démocratique, il doit y avoir la liberté de croire et la liberté de penser ainsi que la liberté de propager nos croyances et nos pensées. Chacun a le droit de penser et de croire ce qu’il veut quand il veut. Et s’il arrive à convaincre les gens et à les faire convertir à ses pensées et à ses dogmes sans violence, c’est « Hallal » - licite - pour lui. L’invitation à une formule valable c’est le mot qu’il faut mettre dans n’importe quelle équation mathématique [=] deux lignes parallèles, c’est-à-dire, je mets entre vous, moi et le monde, ce mot dont le signe mathématique est le symbole [=]. C’est selon cette loi que les astres se meuvent dans leur orbite. Si cette loi s’altère, le monde s’écroule. Le maintien de ces astres dans leur trajectoire et orbite est la conséquence de cette juste équation. Cette loi qui commande les astres commande aussi les sociétés. La société où la justice est absente, s’écroule incontestablement et l’histoire en témoigne. Ainsi, le non usage des armes ni la possession de celles-ci n’a pas empêché le Japon de devenir une puissance mondiale. En revanche, cela n’a pas empêché l’effondrement de l’URSS en dépit de son arsenal nucléaire sans être attaqué par un ennemi extérieur. Il s’est effondré de son propre intérieur avec la complicité des actions clandestines non-violentes de ses propres dissidents. Le Coran considère que ces événements sont un témoignage que la violence et tous les moyens qu’elle use, n’ont pas de pouvoir ni de prise sur l’homme dont Dieu a insufflé de son Ame et qui a accepté cette responsabilité. Le Coran dit « En vérité, nous avons proposé le dépôt de la foi aux Cieux, à la terre et aux montagnes, mais tous refusèrent d’en assumer la responsabilité et en furent effrayés, alors que l’homme, par comble d’ignorance et d’iniquité s’en est chargé. » . Si l’homme ne veille pas sur ce dépôt (Amana), et s’il le néglige, il devient injuste et ignorant selon la conception coranique. Dans le livre d’exemples de la Torah il est dit : « Je suis la compréhension, à moi la puissance, ma récolte vaut mieux que l’or et l’argent purs. Tous tes biens précieux lui sont inégalables. » Et dans l’Evangile : « Ainsi vous connaîtrez la vérité et la vérité vous rendra libres» et « Un de ceux qui étaient avec Jésus tira son épée, frappa le serviteur du grand prêtre et lui coupa l’oreille. » Jésus lui dit alors : « remets ton épée à sa place car tous ceux qui prennent l’épée périront par l’épée » . Ce qui m’a poussé d’intituler mon livre « La doctrine du premier fils d’Adam de la non-violence » est la narration de cette histoire dans la Torah dans les premiers livres de l’Ancien Testament tel qu’elle fut racontée dans Sourate El Maida « La Table » parmi l’un des derniers révélés du Coran. « Racontes leur l’histoire des deux fils d’Adam telle qu’elle s’est déroulée. Chacun des deux frères avait fait une offrande ; mais celle de l’un fut acceptée, alors que celle de l’autre ne le fut point : ‘Je te tuerais’, dit ce dernier à son frère qui lui répond : ‘Que veux-tu, Dieu n’accepte que de ceux qu’ils le craignent ! Et si tu portes la main sur moi pour me tuer, je n’en ferias pas de même car je crains trop mon Seigneur, le maître de l’univers, pour commettre un pareil crime ! Je préfère que tu te charges, seul, de mes péchés et des tiens, et tu seras alors voué à la Géhenne qui est la juste récompense des criminels.’ Mais n’obéissant qu’à son instinct bestial le deuxième fils d’Adam (Caïn) fut entraîné au meurtre de son frère. Il le tua donc et se trouva de ce fait du nombre des réprouvés. Dieu envoya alors un corbeau qui se mit à gratter le sol pour lui indiquer comment inhumer le cadavre de son frère. Alors le meurtrier s’écria ‘Malheur à moi ! Suis-je donc incapable d’imiter ce corbeau et d’ensevelir la dépouille de mon frère’ et, depuis lors il ne cessa d’être rongé par d’intenses remords. Voilà pourquoi nous avons édicter cette loi au fils d’Israël : ‘Quiconque tue un être humain non convaincu de meurtre ou de sédition sur la terre est considéré comme le meurtrier de l’humanité toute entière. Quiconque sauve la vie d’un seul être humain est considéré comme ayant sauvé la vie de l’humanité toute entière !’ Malgré les multiples et irréfutables preuves qui leur furent apportées par Nos prophètes, beaucoup d’entre eux n’en continuèrent pas moins à commettre des excès sur la terre. » . Les adeptes de ces Livres représentent plus de la moitié de l’humanité qui se répandent sur les cinq continents. Ils seront contraints d’accepter la démocratie qui est une invention humaine basée sur la science et les expériences vécues. L’univers entier est au service de l’être humain et est à sa disposition comme il est exprimé dans la Torah et le Coran. Celui-ci dit : « Dieu est Témoin, et avec Lui les anges et les initiés parmi les hommes qu’il n’y a que de divinité que Lui, Lui, le Dieu de la justice. Il n’y a en vérité de divinité que Lui, le puissant, le sage. » Et il dit « Dieu vous prescrit de restituer les dépôts à leurs propriétaires et de vous montrer équitables quand vous êtes appelés à juger vos semblables. C’est là une noble mission que Dieu vous exhorte à remplir. Dieu entend tout, voit tout. » . Et il dit « La bonne action et la mauvaise action ne sont pas pareilles. Rends le bien pour le mal, et tu verras ton ennemi se muer en fervent allié ! Mais une telle grandeur d’âme est seulement le privilège de ceux qui savent faire preuve de patience et de ceux qui sont touchés par une grâce peu commune. » . Le Coran procure la liberté de penser : il insiste : «Dis : ‘la Vérité émane de votre Seigneur. Croira qui voudra, niera qui voudra !’ » . La mécréance ne fait pas l’objet d’un châtiment dans la vie ici bas. Le mécréant et le croyant ont les mêmes devoirs et les mêmes droits. La justice coranique est universelle. Le Coran interdit voire menace d’être injuste envers un non croyant quelle que soit sa pensée. (L’apostasie est une invention purement idéologique inventée par les Amaouites pour liquider leurs rivaux politiques.). Ce qui est strictement interdit par dessus tout est de contraindre les gens à embrasser ou quitter une quelconque doctrine. La justice est pareille et pour le croyant et le non croyant. Aucun n’a le droit d’imposer ses idées, son idéologie, son dogme, par la contrainte et la violence. Chacun, selon l’équation égalitaire, a le droit de faire la propagande pour sa philosophie tant qu’il ne pratique pas la contrainte, la violence et la brutalité car là celles-ci sont contre l’idée de l’humain. La contrainte et la violence ne donne ni la foi ni façonne la mécréance. Une vraie religion révélée ne contraint point. Celui qui accepte la mort en refusant la contrainte et la violence en s’accrochant à sa propre la foi et à sa pensée, est selon moi un adepte du fils Adam, un disciple de Socrate ainsi que tous ceux qui scellent la pacte divin et le pacte de la liberté de l’homme en ses croyances. La raison humaine a atteint ce principe par l’invention de la démocratie. Les turques ont précédés le reste des musulmans dans leur acte de foi dans la démocratie lorsqu ‘ils ont répondu aux américains qui voulaient emprunter le passage pour envahir l’Irak, ils ont rétorqué, « nous devons consulter notre peuple ». L’actuel président turque dans son premier discours a déclaré la foi de son gouvernement en la démocratie. Celui qui convainc son peuple par les idées a le droit de les gouverner. Il a également le droit de garantir toutes les libertés. La voie de la non-violence équivaut à la non contrainte dans le dogme, dans la politique, dans la fondation familiale, etc. Le 2 février 2008, j’ai reçu chez moi dans mon village Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), la visite de l’ambassadeur de l’Inde à Damas qui a entendu d’un certain Jawdat Saïd qui prêche la non-violence. Je lui ai fait savoir combien «j’étais flatté par la visite de l’ambassadeur du pays de Gandhi. J’ai ajouté comment quelqu’un comme moi voit son pays. Vous êtes, selon moi, la plus grande démocratie au monde. Le nombre d’habitants de l’Inde est plus supérieur que la somme des habitants de l’URSS, l’UE et les USA. Vous avez toutes les confessions du monde, tous les courants musulmans et chrétiens en plus des religions orientales, et malgré tout vous êtes une vraie démocratie. Cependant, si vous êtes fidèles aux principes non-violents de Gandhi, vous n’aurez point céder à la tentation de posséder la bombe nucléaire. Gandhi ne faisait aucune distinction entre un oppresseur hindou et un oppresseur anglais. Vous êtes maintenant candidat à devenir un membre permanent à l’ONU. Si vous accepteriez d’avoir le droit de veto, votre réputation s’effondrerait à nos yeux, nous serions déçus. Ce que nous voulons par contre est que vous oeuvriez à abolir ce paragraphe ou cet article injuste dans l’espoir qu’un jour l’ONU devienne une démocratie réelle. » Nous ne craignons pas que la justice soit vaincue dans le monde. En vérité, ceux qui refusent la justice sont les privilégiés qui ne sont pas prêts à abandonner volontairement leurs privilèges. Ceux qui comprennent bien le concept de la justice sont les déshérités, les opprimés qui représentent les 80 % de la population mondiale et profitent seulement de 20% de la richesse du monde. Nous qui croyons à l’exigence de la justice, nous devons nous émanciper et émanciper les autres. Je vous suis très reconnaissant, cher Jean-Marie Muller, avec votre œuvre monumentale qui incite à la prise de conscience des vertus des principes de la philosophie non-violente. J’ai eu la chance de lire une partie de cette œuvre, que je vais d’ailleurs relire, qui ouvre les yeux à ceux qui ont désespéré d’une éventuelle possibilité du changement de l’ordre social. Si nous saisissons ce qui s’est vraiment passé dans notre histoire mondiale et comprenons comment les privilégiés se sont donnés des avantages lorsqu’ils ont gagné la guerre par la guerre et la violence, alors si Hitler avait gagné la guerre, il n’aurait pas fait aussi pire que ce que fait l’ONU actuellement. Herbert G. Wells, auteur de « The Outline of History » dit : « Celui qui possède le strict minimum du savoir des Livres révélés, saura, et s’il saura, refusera que l’homme s’instaure comme être divin. » Le droit de veto est une sorte de déification, divination, imposée aux déshérités. Parmi les longues histoires du Coran, des fois concises et d’autres fois longues et détaillées, est l’histoire de Moïse et du Pharaon de telle manière que le nom de Moïse est cité 100 fois et celui de Pharaon, plus de 70 fois. Le Coran donne la parole au Pharaon (symbole des hommes politiques injustes), Hâmân (symbole des hommes de la religion injustes), karoun (symbole des riches injustes), les magiciens, les femmes, etc… A titre d’exemple Pharaon dit : « Après quoi, il tourna le dos et s’en alla rassembler ses hommes et leur déclara : ‘je suis votre Seigneur le plus puissant’ » « S’adressant alors aux dignitaires, Pharaon dit : ‘vous n’avez pas, que je sache, une autre dieu que moi ! Et toi Hâmân, fais-moi cuire des briques et construis moi une tour pour que je monte jusqu’au Dieu de Moïse ! Je suis certain que Moïse est un imposteur.’ » « ‘Si tu adores un autre divinité que moi, je te jetterais en prison’ s’écria Pharaon » « Les magiciens se prosternèrent alors face au sol en disant : ‘nous croyons au Seigneur d’Aaron (frère de Moïse) et de Moïse !’ ‘Quoi !’ dit Pharaon. Vous vous êtes ralliés à Moïse sans prendre mon accord ? C’est sans doute lui votre chef qui vous a enseigné la magie. Je vais vous faire couper les mains et les pieds en ordre croisé et vous faire crucifier sur des troncs de palmiers. Et vous saurez qui de nous dispose du châtiment le plus sévère et le plus durable ! » . « Comment osez-vous, s’écria Pharaon, vous convertir à son culte sans que je vous y autorise ? C’est là un complot que vous avez ourdi dans la citée en chasser les habitants ! Vous allez voir ! Je vous ferais couper une main d’un côté et un pied de l’autre avant de vous faire tous crucifier !» « Ce que je vous propose, repris Pharaon, est le meilleur parti à prendre, à mon avis, et la solution que je vous indique est sûrement la bonne. » . Toutefois, à propos du Pharaon Dieu dit : « Nous avons envoyé aussi Moïse, nanti de Nos signes et d’une preuve réelle, à Pharaon et à ses dignitaires. Mais ces derniers suivirent l’ordre de Pharaon ; bien que son ordre fut dénué de toute sagesse » . Il n’est pas permis à tout un chacun de croire que avec sa permission. Ce que Moïse et son frère Aaron ont vécu avec Pharaon, est arrivé aussi à Abraham, à Noé, à tous les prophètes ainsi qu’à Socrate, Gandhi, et vous-même cher frère Jean-Marie Muller. Les hommes seront contraints de s’unir comme fut unie l’UE. Les apôtres de la non-violence préparent la voie à cette union basée sur l’exigence de la justice afin que personne ne soit au dessus des lois. Une parole du prophète Mohammad véhicule la même idée : « Ont péri ceux qui vont, ont précédés qui ne punissait pas l’élite quand elle viole la loi. Cependant, quand le faible commet un délit ils appliquent sur lui la loi. ». Dans cette logique, la loi s’applique sur les faibles et protège les élites. C’est ainsi que les prophètes refusent le favoritisme envers n’importe qui et qui soient au dessus des lois. L’idée de mécréance selon les prophètes est l’injustice, et l’acte de foi est la justice envers tous les hommes. La justice est la religion de Dieu. Le Coran dit « Mais Dieu veillait à l’exécution d’un arrêt pris par Lui de toute éternité pour que pérît, en connaissance de cause, celui que devait périr, et survécu à la mêlée, en connaissance de cause celui qui devait survivre. » Et le Coran cite aussi comme loi universelle : « Ton Seigneur, en effet, ne saurait anéantir injustement les citées dont les habitants sont vertueux » et il dit « Ton Seigneur n’anéantit jamais les citées avant d’envoyer dans leur métropole un messager pour leur réciter Nos versets, car Nous n’avons à anéantir que les citées dont les habitants sont injustes. » Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, notre rencontre et votre texte a enrichi ma foi dans la foi de l’homme et de son avenir. Le Coran dit sur les prophètes : « Et lorsque, à la fin, les prophètes désespérés du succès de leur mission et croyaient qu’on les prenait pour des imposteurs, Nous leur envoyons Notre secours et Nous sauvions qui Nous voulions, sans que jamais nos rigueurs fussent détournés de la gent criminelle » . Ô cher Jean-Marie Muller, l’origine et la fin du monde ne commence ni ne finit pas avec notre génération. Je souhaite que nous oeuvrons et nous nous entraidons pour établir la piété et la bienveillance « Que l’aversion que vous ressentez pour ce qui vous ont empêché naguère de vous approcher de la mosquée sacrée ne vous pousse pas à commettre des agressions ! Soyez plutôt solidaires dans la charité et la piété et non dans le péché et l’agression ! » et que nous ne oeuvrerons pas donc dans la violence et l’agression. Il faut que l’on veille à être témoins de la vérité et que l’on ait le courage de la dire. « Je prends le temps à témoin que l’humanité court à sa perte, hormis ceux qui croient pratiquants les bonnes œuvres, se recommandent mutuellement la droiture et se recommandent mutuellement l’endurance. » . L’homme commence à peine à comprendre, pour que son existence ait un sens, doit comprendre que non existence dans ce monde n’est point un hasard ni une absurdité ni un jeu. L’existence de l’homme a un sens et doit être au service d’une cause. La noble cause qui puisse exister est de faire stopper l’injustice et la violence. Il est honteux que les humains s’entretuent entre eux à l’aube du 21ème siècle. Je vous remercie, cher frère Jean-Marie Muller, ô fils d’Adam. Nous devons rester fidèles à l’homme et à l’humain même s’il se trompe et commet des fautes. L’une des grandes morales de Jésus lorsqu’il l’interrogea « combien de fois, est-il permis à mon frère d’être en faute envers moi ? Alors est-ce que je lui pardonne jusqu’à sept fois ? Jésus répondit « Je n’ai pas dit sept fois mais soixante dix fois sept fois. » . Autrement dit mon frère Jean-Marie, nous n’avons que le choix de l’exigence du pardon. L’une des dernières paroles de Jésus fut « O Dieu ! Pardonne-leur car ils ne savent pas ce qu’ils font. » . Merci encore une fois cher frère Jean-Marie. Et engageons nos vies au service de l’homme et de l’humanité. Jésus est envoyé pour qu’il soit au service des autres et non qu’il soit servi. Ton frère Jawdat Saïd Bi’r Aajam (le puit de Aajam), Syrie 11 Octobre 2008 Traduction du Dr Driss Bellahcene Révision par Driss Oumehdi et Isabelle Cros-Oumehdi 0 10 17 2009-04-29T12:08:05Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} As I have suggested, just as the Qur'an recognizes the existence of messengers beyond any religion's exclusive lists, it also recognizes those who undergo th...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} As I have suggested, just as the Qur'an recognizes the existence of messengers beyond any religion's exclusive lists, it also recognizes those who undergo the suffering of messengers in their attempt to bring humanity out of corruption and bloodshed, those who want to spread justice and compassion among us1. Those who call for justice are recognized in the class of messengers, for they are faced with the same call to mission, the most sacred recognized by the Qur'an: "We sent aforetime our messengers with clear signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of right and wrong), that people may stand forth in justice . . . ." (Surah 57 A1 Hadid: 25) The Qur'an also anticipates the same experience of rejection, enmity, and harm faced by those who call for justice, and pronounces the same penalty on those who oppose them: ::'''As to those who deny the signs of God, and in defiance of right, slay the prophets, and slay those calling humankind to justice, announce to them a grievous penalty. ::'''They are those whose works will bear no fruit in this world and in the hereafter, nor will they have supporters.''' (Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 21-22)2 By adding those who call for justice to the list of messengers, the world enters a new era, a new way of knowing, and a new way of reception from God. Divine revelation and the testimony of people of knowledge who call for justice are directly connected: calling for justice is monotheism; it is the thread of unicity in prophetic messages. The central message of the Qur'an sums up all the prophets' message into one unique expression, used in Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) correspondence with world leaders of his time. ::'''Say: `O people of the Book! Come to a word of equity (fair terms) between us and you: ::'''That we worship none but God ::'''That we associate no partners with him (practice polytheism) ::'''That we take not each other as deities other than God.' If they, then, turn back, say ye: `Bear witness that we are Muslims (surrendering to God)'.''' (Id. at 64)3 This is the word of eguity, light and heavy at the same time. It is at once apparent and subtle, a stage which cannot be grasped, for when some believe they have reached it, in fact they have moved away &om it as Adam's flight in terror from the Garden reminds us4. At the edge of equity, civilizations have collapsed and many have been destroyed. Perhaps we can never approach this world of equity unless we admit our distance from it. For in the Bible we read: "Enter by the narrow gate. Wide is the gate, and broad the road that leads to destruction, and many enter that way"; "Narrow is the gate and constricted that road that leads to life, and those who find them are few." (Matt 7:13-14) The word of equity is the message of all prophets. After the end of prophecy, this message is the responsibility of those who call for justice, and it is the core of the monotheistic tradition. A devout person's closeness to God is judged by the degree to which he or she is capable of comprehending this message, teaching it and committing to it. The status of any society with God is also dependent on its realization of equity according to the Qur'an5: "For the like of this, let all strive, who wish to strive." (Surah 37 A1 Saffat: 61) "Come to a word of equity," the Surah says6. The word of equity is to give the other what you give yourself, and to deny yourself what you deny the other. In the Bible, the same notion is presented as a law of the universe: "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled [abased]; and whoever humble himself will be exalted." (Matt 23:12) The Qur'an succinctly sums up this central message of monotheism, the word of equity and the unity of prophets, in two sentences in Surah 16 which call for equity, justice and piety. For We assuredly sent amongst every nation (community) a messenger, (with the command), "Serve God, and eschew tyranny . . ." (Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 36) "(God) committed them to a term of piety; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it . . ." (Surah 48 A1 Fath: 26) This is the core of religion, the essence of truth, and the goal of prophets, messengers, reformers and those of knowledge. This is what is sacred, what is in all the Books. We read in the Bible: "Always treat others as you would like them to treat you: that is the law and the prophets." (Matt 7:12) It is also what the Qur'an presents7. The word of equity was explained in the Qur'an in three ways8: (1) that we worship none but God, (2) that we associate no partners with him (will not practice polytheism), (3) and that we take not each other as deities. These explanations are part of an overarching interpretation of the word of equity that subsumes within it the denunciation of tyranny and prohibition of religious coercion: ::''' (1) for rushd9 (moral and intellectual maturity) stands out as clearly distinct from wickedness (ghay). (2) Whoever rejects tyranny and believes in God (3) has grasped the most secure handhold, that never breaks loose'.''' (Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 256) ::'''The word of equity is also the witness that `there is no god, but God.' Thus, the Qur'an warns that those who cross the boundaries of justice into oppression by dominating and overpowering others (the verb "tagha" is significant since many people, including even Arabs, do not always understand the relationship between the verb "tagha" and the term "taghut," and since the term "taghut" is used throughout the document perhaps a footnote about the verb should be placed under the first time the term "taghut" appears) "spread (heap) therein corruption (mischief)." (Surah 89 A1 Fajr: 11-12) The story of Pharaoh and Moses is the paradigmatic story in the Qur'an of both tyranny and "speaking to power." Mentioned numerous times, the name Pharaoh ceased to be simply the name of an individual and became instead a symbolic reference to all domination that violated the precepts of equity10. "Truly Pharaoh elated himself in the land and broke up its people into sects, dominating (depressing) a group among them: their sons he slew, their women he enslaved. He was indeed one of the (class ofJ corrupters (on earth)." (Surah 28 Al Qasas: 4) The word of equity, the word of monotheism and the order to avoid domination and eschew tyranny all resonate within each other. Similarly, in the Bible the connection between monotheism and equity is clear: the Bible condemns the human mastery over other persons: "And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ." (Matt 23:9-10)11 ==Footnotes== 1 The Qur'an attests to the hostile reception faced by those who prophesy: "Do they seek for other than the religion of God?" "while all creatures in the heavens and on earth have, willing or unwilling, bowed to his will, and to Him shall they all be brought back." Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 81-83. The Qur'an further states: And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: `Oh, children of Israel! I am the messenger of God (sent) to you, confirming the Law (which came) before me, and giving glad tidings of a Messenger to come after me, Whose name shall be Ahmad. (another name for Muhaxnmed).' But when he came to them with clear signs, they said, `This is evident sorcery!' Surah 61 A1 Saff: 6. 2 Similarly, the Qur'an joined the testimony of God and angels to that of the learned ones who call for justice: "There is no god but He: that is the witness of God, his angels, and those endued with knowledge, standing firm on justice. There is no god but He the exalted in power, the wise." Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 18. 3 The prophet (PBLlH) wrote these leaders letters in which he called on them for what had been revealed to him . In his letters, he included this term, which is captured in the quoted verse. 4 T'he Bible tells us: And the Lord God . . . said, `The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; what if he now reaches out and takes fruit from the tree of life also, and eats it and lives for ever': When he drove him out, God settled him to the East of the garden of Eden, and he stationed the cherubim and a sword whirling and tlashing to guard the way to the tree of life. Gen 3:22, 24. The flaming sword at the gate of Eden is the narrow gate in Matthew which only few will find. 5 For instance, the Surahs read: "[AJnd for this let the competitors compete." Surah 83 Al Mutaffifin: 26. 6 Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 64. 7 As just some examples of this word of equity, we might look at the Bible: How can you say to your brother, `let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own? You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's. Matt 7:4-5. The Qur'an also enunciates this word more specifically: Woe to those that deal in fraud. Those who, when they have to receive by measure from people, exact full measure, But when they have to give by measure or weight to others, give less than due. Do they not think that they will be called to account? On a Mighty Day, A Day when all humankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds. Surah 83 Al Mutaffifin: 1-6. To call forth the demand forjudgment in equity in parallel ways: Do not judge, and you will not be judged. For as you judge others, so you will yourselves be judged, and whatever measure you deal out of others will be dealt to you. Matt 7:2. Do you enjoin right conduct on the people, and forget (to practise it) yourselves. And yet you study the Scripture? Will you not reason. Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 44. Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay tithe of mint and dill and c~xnmin; but you have overlooked the weightier demands of the law justice, mercy, and good faith. It these you should have practised, without neglecting the others. Matt 23:23. Perhaps through these comparisons, our level will rise beyond mint and cummin. We, then, will take the law unlike those who `strain off a midge, yet gulp down a camel.' Id. at 23:24. Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like tombs covered with whitewash; they look fine on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and of corruption. So it is with you: outwardly you look like honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (iniquity]. Id. at 24:27-28. and lawlessness spreads [because iniquity shall abound], the love of many will grow cold. But whoever endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the earth as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come. Id. at 24:12-14. In the Qur'an, it is also said: Say: `Not equal are things that are vile and things that are seemly, even though the abundance of vileness may dazzle you; so fear God, O you that of hearts (understand); that you may prosper.' Surah 5 A1 Ma'idah: 103. And no one will be granted such goodness except those who exercise patience and self restraint, none but persons of greatest good fortune. Surah 41 Fussilat: 35. It is those who are endowed with hearts (understanding) that remember. Those who fulfill the covenant of God and fail not in their plighted word; Those who join together those which God had commanded to be joined, hold their Lord in awe, and fear the terrible reckoning; Those who patiently persevere, seeking the countenance of their Lord; establish regular prayers; spend, out of what We have bestowed for their sustenance, secretly and openly; and repel off evil with good (compassion): for such there is the attainment of the (etemal) home. Surah 13 A1 Ra'd: 19-22. 8 And all prophets were sent with the commands to worship God and avoid tyranny (taghut) (domination) and that the word of polytheism is in opposition to the word of equity. We see this clearly stated in these words: "It has already been revealed to you as it was those before you. `If you were to commit polytheism, truly obsolete will be your work, and you will surely be in the ranks of those who lose."' Surah 39 A1 Zummar: 65. It is important to understand that obedience is voluntary; in Surah 2 we read: "There is no coercion in religion . . . .' Surah 2 Al-Baqarah 256. 9 The Arabic term "rushd" has a variety of interrelated meanings which include "(physical) maturity and adulthood." The root word for "rushd" in Arabic means "guidance or reason." The Qur'anic concept of "rushd," however, is ticher in meaning than the corresponding Arabic word. It refers to other less literal and more conceptually sophisticated meanings, such as: moral and spiritual maturity, or political legitimacy. In the Qur'an "rushd" is used to distinguish a certain path or even a model of behavior. For example, the Qur'an describes the Pharoah as someone who was not "rashid." Surah 11 Hud: 97. In other places, the Qur'an states that God will turn away from the "path of rushd" those who are arrogant, and unjustly defiant. Surah 7 Al-A'raf: I46. The word "rushd" is used repeatedly in the Qur'an to embody meanings of reason, guidance and political or social legitimacy in a community. Because of the richness of this Qur'anic term, the editors have opted not to translate i~, but to use the word "rushd" instead throughout the text. This approach preserves the richness of its meaning and maintains the integrity of this Qur'anic concept. 10 "Serve God, and eschew tyranny . . . ." Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 36. Taghut and tughyan comes from the Arabic verb tagha which means to dominate and control; to pass the limits in oppression. The Qut'an uses this verb in relation to the Pharaoh in many instances as we saw in the earlier quotes. This verb was also used in relation to the tribes A'ad and Thamoud in addition to Pharaoh. The longest dialogue in the Qur'an between a prophet and his people is the dialogue between Moses and Pharaoh. The Pharaoh was mentioned in the Qur'an more than 70 times and Moses over I00 times. The struggle of the prophet Moses was with one of the greatest and most domineering civilizations, which has left us the pyramids, a symbols of the power they possessed. Pharaoh, in the Qur'an, is more of an archetype. He was the king, the god whom the Qur'an quoted in phrases that indicate subjugation and conquest, and the division of his people into classes. The Qur'an quotes different utterances by Pharaoh. "He (Pharaoh) said: `I am your Lord, Most High."' Surah 79 A1 Nazi'at: 24. "Pharaoh said: `O chiefs! No god do I know for you but myself . . . ."' Surah 28 A1 Qasas: 38. "Pharaoh said: `If thou dost put forward any god other than me, I will certainly make thee imprisoned."' Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara': 29. And of him: "Truly Pharoah elevated himself in the land and splintered up its people into factions, taking advantage of a weak group among them: their sons he slew, and he kept the women alive, for he was indeed a maker of mishief." Surah 28A1 Qasas: 4. 11 This verse is from the King James version. This translation is more in accord with the Arabic version. And the verses are more consistent with each other in this translation, since, in this version, God is presented as Father and Master. In the King James, "even Christ" is added to emphasize that no one is called master, even Christ. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 1 233 232 2022-02-16T05:19:36Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki ===About Jawdat=== * Jawdat Said, Islamic thinker, (Saturday, January 31, 1931 - Sunday, January 30, 2022). * He studied elementary in the village of Bir Ajam in Quneitra Governorate, Syria, traveled to Cairo to study at Al-Azhar, and graduated from the Faculty of Arabic Language in the late fifties. * His first book appeared in 1966 and since then he has published many books, many of which have been translated into English and Turkish. '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. * [[{{ns:media}}:Jawdat Said’s Main Ideas.pdf|Jawdat Said’s Main Ideas]], By: Dr. Abdullatif Alkhaiat ===Works By Jawdat Said=== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] - "From the first day of the creation of man, he was entrusted with this mission. The responsibility is quite heavy - but then, have not the angels been commanded to prostrate themselves before the human: this honoring cannot be without its heavy responsibility. Humans must be able to prove that they are qualified to realize justice and suppress the spilling of blood." *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf.pdf|Until They Change..]] - "A human mind can take one of two attitudes towards problems: It can assume that problems are subject to laws, and hence that a problem is within control once we have discovered the laws which it is subject to; or it can assume that things happen without being controlled by laws, or, which comes to the same result, that the laws that control things are beyond the reach of a human. Of course, the two positions are the two ends of a curve, for there will be a whole range of positions between the one and the other extreme." | *[[{{ns:media}}:BE_LIKE_ADAMS_UPRIGHT_SON.pdf|Be like Adam's Upright Son]] -"What this book introduces is the problem of all Adam's descendants. I have in mind the event of Adam's two sons as related by God - two sons, two styles and approaches in solving problems: One of the two sons seeks to solve a human problem by eliminating the human, and the other holds off his hand ˗ realizing that to eliminate a human is not the right way to solving his/her problem." *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] - I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. *[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]: - J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]: - Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : [[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} 16afa91dc754418097b0f5f7a0ae0fe6bed28a2a 232 230 2021-12-01T06:32:41Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. * '''NEW:''' [[{{ns:media}}:Jawdat Said’s Main Ideas.pdf|Jawdat Said’s Main Ideas]], By: Dr. Abdullatif Alkhaiat ===Works By Jawdat Said=== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] - "From the first day of the creation of man, he was entrusted with this mission. The responsibility is quite heavy - but then, have not the angels been commanded to prostrate themselves before the human: this honoring cannot be without its heavy responsibility. Humans must be able to prove that they are qualified to realize justice and suppress the spilling of blood." *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf.pdf|Until They Change..]] - "A human mind can take one of two attitudes towards problems: It can assume that problems are subject to laws, and hence that a problem is within control once we have discovered the laws which it is subject to; or it can assume that things happen without being controlled by laws, or, which comes to the same result, that the laws that control things are beyond the reach of a human. Of course, the two positions are the two ends of a curve, for there will be a whole range of positions between the one and the other extreme." | *[[{{ns:media}}:BE_LIKE_ADAMS_UPRIGHT_SON.pdf|Be like Adam's Upright Son]] -"What this book introduces is the problem of all Adam's descendants. I have in mind the event of Adam's two sons as related by God - two sons, two styles and approaches in solving problems: One of the two sons seeks to solve a human problem by eliminating the human, and the other holds off his hand ˗ realizing that to eliminate a human is not the right way to solving his/her problem." *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] - I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. *[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]: - J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]: - Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : [[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} 16fbc9f3e33bb6e714883871c42c5c64f5b627c7 230 229 2021-04-19T15:25:33Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] - "From the first day of the creation of man, he was entrusted with this mission. The responsibility is quite heavy - but then, have not the angels been commanded to prostrate themselves before the human: this honoring cannot be without its heavy responsibility. Humans must be able to prove that they are qualified to realize justice and suppress the spilling of blood." *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf.pdf|Until They Change..]] - "A human mind can take one of two attitudes towards problems: It can assume that problems are subject to laws, and hence that a problem is within control once we have discovered the laws which it is subject to; or it can assume that things happen without being controlled by laws, or, which comes to the same result, that the laws that control things are beyond the reach of a human. Of course, the two positions are the two ends of a curve, for there will be a whole range of positions between the one and the other extreme." | *[[{{ns:media}}:BE_LIKE_ADAMS_UPRIGHT_SON.pdf|Be like Adam's Upright Son]] -"What this book introduces is the problem of all Adam's descendants. I have in mind the event of Adam's two sons as related by God - two sons, two styles and approaches in solving problems: One of the two sons seeks to solve a human problem by eliminating the human, and the other holds off his hand ˗ realizing that to eliminate a human is not the right way to solving his/her problem." *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] - I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. *[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]: - J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]: - Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : [[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} f2d4b425c42e60fe175ab8799ec037d35e10e5fe 229 228 2021-04-19T12:55:27Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] - "From the first day of the creation of man, he was entrusted with this mission. The responsibility is quite heavy - but then, have not the angels been commanded to prostrate themselves before the human: this honoring cannot be without its heavy responsibility. Humans must be able to prove that they are qualified to realize justice and suppress the spilling of blood." *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf.pdf|Until They Change..]] - "A human mind can take one of two attitudes towards problems: It can assume that problems are subject to laws, and hence that a problem is within control once we have discovered the laws which it is subject to; or it can assume that things happen without being controlled by laws, or, which comes to the same result, that the laws that control things are beyond the reach of a human. Of course, the two positions are the two ends of a curve, for there will be a whole range of positions between the one and the other extreme." | *[[{{ns:media}}:BE_LIKE_ADAMS_UPRIGHT_SON.pdf|Be like Adam's Upright Son]] -"What this book introduces is the problem of all Adam's descendants. I have in mind the event of Adam's two sons as related by God - two sons, two styles and approaches in solving problems: One of the two sons seeks to solve a human problem by eliminating the human, and the other holds off his hand ˗ realizing that to eliminate a human is not the right way to solving his/her problem." *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] - I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. *[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]: - J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]: - Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : [[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} 3bea4f56bcd3e174d7fe08b5a31b107ce99d4e4d 228 226 2021-04-19T12:54:25Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] - "From the first day of the creation of man, he was entrusted with this mission. The responsibility is quite heavy - but then, have not the angels been commanded to prostrate themselves before the human: this honoring cannot be without its heavy responsibility. Humans must be able to prove that they are qualified to realize justice and suppress the spilling of blood." *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf.pdf|Until They Change..]] - "A human mind can take one of two attitudes towards problems: It can assume that problems are subject to laws, and hence that a problem is within control once we have discovered the laws which it is subject to; or it can assume that things happen without being controlled by laws, or, which comes to the same result, that the laws that control things are beyond the reach of a human. Of course, the two positions are the two ends of a curve, for there will be a whole range of positions between the one and the other extreme." | *[[{{ns:media}}:BE_LIKE_ADAMS_UPRIGHT_SON.pdf|Be like Adam's Upright Son]] -"What this book introduces is the problem of all Adam's descendants. I have in mind the event of Adam's two sons as related by God - two sons, two styles and approaches in solving problems: One of the two sons seeks to solve a human problem by eliminating the human, and the other holds off his hand ˗ realizing that to eliminate a human is not the right way to solving his/her problem." *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] - I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. *[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]: - J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]: - Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : [[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. eacf33d45e0cc2c1e92b24a19874fc0dbcbd7f53 226 223 2021-04-19T11:30:26Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] - "From the first day of the creation of man, he was entrusted with this mission. The responsibility is quite heavy - but then, have not the angels been commanded to prostrate themselves before the human: this honoring cannot be without its heavy responsibility. Humans must be able to prove that they are qualified to realize justice and suppress the spilling of blood." *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf.pdf|Until They Change..]] - "A human mind can take one of two attitudes towards problems: It can assume that problems are subject to laws, and hence that a problem is within control once we have discovered the laws which it is subject to; or it can assume that things happen without being controlled by laws, or, which comes to the same result, that the laws that control things are beyond the reach of a human. Of course, the two positions are the two ends of a curve, for there will be a whole range of positions between the one and the other extreme." *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]]''' *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. | *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. f7c01e2ebe79566f2f190f585e1149f58109ccc7 223 220 2021-04-19T08:27:07Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' - "Ten millennia back, humans learned agriculture and the domestication of animals, but they also learned how to enslave other humans - yes, some humans started to be sold together with the land on which they worked. This is the tragic aspect of the new epoch: for ten thousand years, man has been adjusting to agriculture, but he is still trying, for the adjustment has not so far succeeded: We still find some humans enslave other humans, and we still find a minority of people living in luxury on the shoulders of the majority." *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] - "As I understand Islam, it is possible for me to associate with people, in justice and kindness to all people - with only one condition, that they give up violence, and do not resort to violence to impose their convictions." *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK_121.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] *[[{{ns:media}}:Reading,_Science_and_Peace.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] - "And once religion has become a science, like chemistry, people will stop disputing about its facts: it is so because science cuts off disputes. It will be as the Lord said in the Qur’an: “for the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth,” (13:17). " *[[{{ns:media}}:https://jawdatsaid.net/images/8/83/Change-En.pdf|Until They Change..]] *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]]''' *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. | *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 89f8e4afb848f76e2e92cfacb569d863322686b9 220 217 2020-11-18T10:36:37Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:FOREWORD_To-ALLAH_NOT_THE_KING.pdf|FOREWORD To: ALLAH NOT THE KING]] ' *[[{{ns:media}}:IMMIGRATION_TO_ISLAM.pdf|IMMIGRATION TO ISLAM | ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS]] '''"NEW TRANSLATION"''' *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] *[[{{ns:media}}:READ.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] *[[{{ns:media}}:https://jawdatsaid.net/images/8/83/Change-En.pdf|Until They Change..]] *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]]''' *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. | *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 3659ceb4781af00aef5ce9200b6bc5f0003d16e4 217 216 2020-07-27T16:09:45Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] '''"NEW"''' *[[{{ns:media}}:READ.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] *[[{{ns:media}}:https://jawdatsaid.net/images/8/83/Change-En.pdf|Until They Change..]] *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]]''' *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. | *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 7b0c05e2d6b0c61eaf92a62ad7b0e57821287ac1 216 215 2020-06-26T12:29:37Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:WORK.pdf|Work is Ability and Will]] '''"NEW"''' *[[{{ns:media}}:READ.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf|Until They Change..]] *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]]''' *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. | *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 937fe75301c640748d8253b7a64db4af635b5bb4 215 167 2019-12-13T08:31:32Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[{{ns:media}}:READ.pdf|Reading, Science and Peace]] *[[{{ns:media}}:Change-En.pdf|Until They Change..]] *[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]] *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:The_Way_of_Adams_Upright_Son.pdf|The Way of Adam's Upright Son]]''' *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. | *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 0c23f34be8c5ef8b259402157e25fe8f05e339e0 167 166 2010-09-27T20:14:51Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/4/42/Follow_the_Example_of_Adam%27s_Good_Son.en.doc '''NEW: Follow the Example of Adam's Good Son'''] *I take up here an approach to the main dilemma of human life on this planet; I tackle this issue in the light of the story of Adam's two sons, as related by God in His Scripture, the Qur'an (5:27-31). In that parable, we have two distinct methods of dealing with life's problems, since one of Adam's sons tried to get over the problem by killing the other, like a doctor trying to get over the disease by killing the patient; and the other held back his hand, and affirmed that killing could not be the right solution. *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 166 161 2009-12-28T10:42:31Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. *'''[[The role of religious actors in peace-building]]''': Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to... |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 161 157 2009-12-14T13:53:11Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' *'''[[Le Rôle Des Acteurs Religieux Dans La Construction De La Paix Et De La Démocratie]]''': J'avais écrit, il y a un demi-siècle, un livre sur le rôle du penseur et de la pensée dans les crises. Certes, je parlais alors de la crise dans le monde musulman. Un demi-siècle auparavant, de nombreux développements ont eu lieu dans un monde qui change toujours et à grande vitesse. Toutefois, les principes formulés dans ce livre sont toujours valables, à mon avis pour approcher la crise mondiale. |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 157 156 2009-09-30T14:24:18Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 156 155 2009-09-30T14:21:17Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=Current_Islamic_Issues.Doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 155 154 2009-09-30T14:16:51Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 154 153 2009-09-02T08:22:28Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. 153 151 2009-08-23T11:18:09Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] *'[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 151 94 2009-08-23T11:15:46Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with [[Current Islamic Issues]]=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 94 88 2009-05-25T09:45:58Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 88 87 2009-05-11T03:40:05Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in : '''[[Cevdet Said|Türkçe]]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 87 76 2009-05-11T03:28:30Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] *Download in "Turkish": [[Türkçe]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 76 75 2009-05-08T12:25:07Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/d/d7/Non-Violence.doc Non-Violence] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 75 73 2009-05-07T20:31:53Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' *[[L’exigence Du Pardon]] |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 73 69 2009-05-07T18:18:51Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki '''We''' live in a world in which four fifths of its population live in frustration while the other fifth lives in fear. The United Nations, our world's "figleaf," does not hide the shame of humanity but rather scandalizes humanity's malaise. It is troubling that the League of Nations and the United Nations were born after two world wars. Humanity's unity should come as a natural birth and not as the result of a caesarian section, i.e., through violent global wars. This is reminiscent of the ages of epidemics. Then, because of ignorance about the causes behind these illnesses, plagues swept through communities, leaving millions of dead behind. Yet, after technology made it possible for us to see smaller forms of life and medicine brought us a better understanding of germs, communities became better equipped to halt disease and heal the sufferers. If a country now is devastated by an epidemic, we blame it on the lack of sufficient hygiene. So too, the wars that erupt here and there are caused by ignorance of the intellectual organisms that infect communities with hate and influence people to commit atrocities. In today's world, relying on science, we concern ourselves with preventing germ warfare while sheltering the intellectual viruses that destroy us: our intellectual foods are still polluted. We cannot afford to continue to be confused or ignorant about these invasive germs. In this article, I will shed some light on the root causes of the historical and religious violence that have afflicted humanity. Because one cannot understand religion or law without having a true understanding of humankind, I must first discuss the Islamic understanding of humanity, whose existence necessitates both the disciplines of law and religion. Two distinct, but intertwining, foundational perspectives govern the way in which Islam understands humans' relationship with their reality: a biological, psychological and historical perspective, which is available to human reason; and a religious perspective revealed in the Qur'an. __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} '''This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ''' 69 68 2009-05-07T14:23:48Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 68 67 2009-05-07T14:21:43Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 67 66 2009-05-07T14:19:34Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">7611582174323925406</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 66 65 2009-05-07T11:34:02Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *Download in '''French''': '''[http://jawdatsaid.net/images/f/fd/La_religion_et_la_loi.doc La Religion Et La Loi]''' |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 65 64 2009-05-07T11:29:44Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website. Now you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 64 63 2009-05-07T11:29:05Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English and soon in French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 63 61 2009-05-07T11:27:31Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} 61 60 2009-05-06T09:58:49Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> |} ===LAW, RELIGION AND THE PROPHETIC METHOD OF SOCIAL CHANGE=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[AN UNDERSTANDING OF OUR EXISTENCE]] *[[THE UNITY OF PROPHECY]] *[[The Messengers God Did Not Mention]] *[[THE HISTORICAL MOVE FROM THE SUPERNATURAL TO A UNIVERSE BASED ON LAWS]] *[[MESSENGERS FOR JUSTlCE]] | *[[No Compulsion in Religion]] *[[The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose]] *[[Intellectuals: The "Blind Guides"]] *[[The Role of Humanity and the Sin of Self Exaltation]] *[[THE RETURN TO THE COVENANT OF THE PROPHETS]] | *[[Prophetic Disobedience]] *[[Intellectual Healing]] *[[THE PURPOSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION]] *[[The Call of Democracy]] *[[The Conditions for Violence in Islam]] *[[A Return to the Text]] |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 60 59 2009-05-06T09:48:38Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406</videoflash> |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 59 55 2009-05-06T09:46:47Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' | <videoflash type="googlevideo">-2960763202862488257</videoflash> |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 55 54 2009-05-06T09:17:23Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] | *'''[[Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 54 38 2009-05-06T09:02:34Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== ===Interview with Current Islamic Issues=== {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] *[[features of your project]] *[[Two sources of knowledge]] *[[Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] | *[[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] *[[The challenge of globalization]] *[[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] *[[Is the Islamic mind in a crisis? ]] | *[[The present Arabic cultural scene]] *[[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] *[[Interpretation of the holy texts]] |} __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 38 25 2009-05-06T07:40:31Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Current Islamic Issues]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 25 3 2009-05-06T06:19:14Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[LAW,_RELIGION_AND_THE_PROPHETIC_METHOD_OF_SOCIAL_CHANGE|LAW & RELIGION]] *[[Interview with Jawdat]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 3 2 2009-04-23T10:57:47Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta International version of Jawdat Said's website, you can find pages in English, French and Turkish. For the Arabic (عربي) Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. ==English== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Français== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} ==Türkçe== __NOTOC__ __NOEDITSECTION__ {| id="mp-topbanner" style="width:100%; font-size:12px; background:#fcfcfc; margin-top:0.3em; border:0px solid #ccc;" |style="width:2%; color:#000"| <!-- --> | *[[:تصنيف:مذهب ابن آدم الأول|مذهب ابن آدم الأول]] *[[:تصنيف:اقرأ وربك الأكرم|اقرأ وربك الأكرم]] *[[:تصنيف:الدين والقانون|الدين والقانون]] *[[:تصنيف:حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم|حتى يغيروا ما بأنفسهم]] *[[:تصنيف:كن كابن آدم|كن كابن آدم]] | *[[:تصنيف:العمل قدرة وإرادة|العمل قدرة وإرادة]] *[[:تصنيف:رياح التغيير|رياح التغيير]] *[[:تصنيف:الإنسان، كلاً وعدلاً|الإنسان كلاً وعدلاً]] *[[:تصنيف:العبودية المختارة|العبودية المختارة]] *[[:تصنيف:فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي|فقدان التوازن الاجتماعي]] | *[[:تصنيف:أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك|أيها المحلفون الله لا الملك]] *'''[[أفلام|Movies]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:La religion et la loi.doc|La Religion Et La Loi]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:LAW.doc|LAW and RELIGION]]''' *'''[[{{ns:media}}:Non-Violence.doc|Non-Violence]]''' |} 2 1 2009-03-30T14:27:29Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki This is the Beta English version of Jawdat Said's website, to see the Arabic Edition [http://jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=الصفحة_الرئيسية click here]. 1 2009-03-28T18:59:21Z MediaWiki default 0 wikitext text/x-wiki <big>'''MediaWiki has been successfully installed.'''</big> Consult the [http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents User's Guide] for information on using the wiki software. == Getting started == * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Configuration_settings Configuration settings list] * [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ MediaWiki FAQ] * [https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce MediaWiki release mailing list] 0 45 101 2009-08-23T09:42:54Z Admin 1 moved [[Main stages in Jawdat's intellectual progress]] to [[Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress?]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress?]] 0 56 139 2009-08-23T10:41:41Z Admin 1 moved [[Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] to [[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] 0 11 18 2009-04-29T12:15:03Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} The word of equity implies specifically that there cannot be compulsion in religious matters. As the Qur'an says, in the complicated passage quoted below: :...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The word of equity implies specifically that there cannot be compulsion in religious matters. As the Qur'an says, in the complicated passage quoted below: ::'''There is no coercion in religion: rushd (moral and intellectual maturity) stands out as clearly distinct from ghay (domination, wickedness): who-ever rejects taghut (tyranny) and believes in God, has grasped the most secure handhold that never breaks loose. And God hears And knows all things'''. (Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 256) Thus, the demand that there must be rushd in religion is clarified by the second sentence that there should be "no compulsion" or ghay (domination and wickedness) in religion. Compulsion is thus wickedness and its antithesis, tolerance, is moral and intellectual maturity. The third sentence further explains that any one who rejects taghut, (such as by resisting the temptation to impose his or her religion by force upon others), and believes in God, will have grasped the most secure handhold of all that never breaks loose. In this verse, we encounter a profound, essential notion: religion should never be spread by means of force or compulsion. Religion is an interpretation of the universe, of existence and everything in it, including the human person, the relationship between humanity and the universe, and relationships among people. And it is also an interpretation of the Supreme Being. The Qur'an demands faith in a particular way that rejects coercive religion. ==The Meaning of the Universe & Divine Purpose== The meaning of the universe is evasive. It is something beyond our comprehension. Nevertheless, we can see pmpose in everything from the nucleus to the Galaxy, and in every creature and moment in the evolution of the human species. We can see how the universe is progressing towards an end that is neither arbitrary nor wrong According to the Qur'an, God is beyond human perception: "And there is none like unto Him." (Surah 112 A1 Ikhlas: 4) "[T]here is nothing whatever like unto Him." (Surah 42 A1 Shura: 11) "No vision can grasp Him. But his grasp is over all vision . . . ." (Surah 6 Al An'am: 103) God is the essence of existence, and the meaning of the universe. Faith in God is the secret of existence. Nevertheless, we sometimes conceive of the universe as lacking w purpose because of a fragmented worldview, one that does not conceive of existence sequentially, nor sees it through time. Many perceive existence as arbitrary and worthy of rejection. When this sense that the world is arbitrary overshadows the glory and beauty of existence, we live disconnected with the world. ::'''Did you then think that We had created you in jest (arbitrarily), and that you would not be brought back to us (for account). Therefore exalted be God, the King, the Reality: there is no god but, the Lord of the throne of honour!''' (Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 115-116) Consequently, we should reject not existence itself but those who impose upon others the belief that the world is arbitrary. This is what the Qur'an and Bible do. Many respected thinkers advocate such nihilistic ideas and so make others lose their sense of purpose in life and forego any hope of finding a meaning to existence. Both the Qur'an and the Bible warn of such tendencies: ::'''`[B]ut who does more wrong than one who concocts a lie against God, to lead astray people without knowledge . . . .' (Surah 6 Al An'am: 144) `[A]nd hinder them from the path of God ....' '''(Surah 9 Al Tawbah: 34) ::'''The Bible confirms this warning: `Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces; you do not enter yourselves, and when others try to enter, you stop them.' (Matt 23:13) Jesus goes on and calls them the `Blind guides (who) strain off a midge, yet gulp down a camel!' '''(Matt 23:24) Yet, even those who deny that there is a purpose to the universe live in ways that contradict their very own ideas. For example, once one of my visitors argued that the universe is arbitrary. I said to him: "If what you are saying were true and you believed in it, you would not have visited me and you would not have discussed this with me. Your own strife shows your faith in a truth for which you are searching." The Qur'an contends that unlike most human behavior, which is learned by human beings after they come into the world, faith in God is something that a human being is born with, something that he or she is imprinted with, just as other creatures are imprinted with the behavior appropriate to their species. The searching and yearning that my visitor experienced is always present because the human body, by design, requires purpose. Genes in the human nervous system demand meaning. Thus, humans come to life with a profound curiosity that challenges any nihilism and loss of purpose1;' a human being is innately a creature in search of meaning and order in the universe, a creature who instinctively responds to the demand of monotheism. Belief in God implies a rejection of the notion that the universe is arbitrary, even though it permits a wide and open range of views about the meaning of the universe that still give honor to God2: ::'''Those who celebrate the praises of God, standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (with the thought): `Our Lord! Not for naught have You created (all) this! Glory to You! Give us salvation &om the penalty of the Fire.' '''(Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 190¬191) Justice and the word of equity are not nihilistic notions, nor is compassion arbitrary. Nihilism lies in the attempt to conceal or the inability to see the demands of justice, piety and compassion throughout history. While people despair out of the long whimsical lives they lead and "many false prophets will rise, and will mislead many; and as lawlessness (inequity) spreads, the love of many will grow cold," (Matt 24:11-12) the longing and yearning for knowledge, from which love grows, does not die. It is true that human beings are willing to give away their lives and fortunes for the sake of self actualization, and the yearning for self actualization is a flame that never dies. Yet, it is possible for us to mistake the movement of the sun, and still we are capable of correcting such wrongs and of moving beyond them once and for all. History imposes purpose and meaningfulness. Any understanding bereft of history is disconnected and arbitrary. History teaches us this. But history is a vision that includes the present, past and future. Any person capable of seeing this reality is in perpetual prayer and in touch with the sacred. S/he is "involved" with the universe, driven to pursue the best. History, without weariness, is like a patient instructor and humanity is like a clever student who finally understands its lessons. At the end, humanity comes to the call of history and moves forward to economize and invest in resources. Humanity comes to learn about its capacities through history. Thus, it is perhaps possible to see why that . which brings the best out in a human being is never the result of coercion. Human beings have a longing for the meaning of their own lives and the world around them, and we must be skilled in investing in this longing, rather than bludgeoning it with coercion. History exemplifies God's investment in human understanding and His stand against the waste of coercion: "Soon will We show them our signs in the horizons, and in their own selves, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth . . . ." (Surah 41 Fussilat: 53) The signs in our selves and in the horizons (or universe) reveal the truth, tempting human intelligence to perform its meaning-making role by reaching for the best outcome with the least effort and energy. The constant law of history has as its goal keeping that which is the largest benefit for the greatest number of people who live on earth, and not that which benefits some of them. This is a significant law; it is what distinguishes truth from evil in the Qur'an: ::''' "Thus does God (by parables) show forth truth and falsehood. For the foam (scum) dries out (disappears) like forth cast out; while that which is for the benefit of humankind remains on the earth . . . ." '''(Surah 13 Al Ra'd: 17) This law is the decisive point of reference. It does not spare those who slack behind: it will abrogate them. That which is more beneficial to humankind will supersede that which is less beneficial, whether in technology or human understanding. "None of our revelations do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something either better or similar: do you not know that God has power over all things." (Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 106) The Qur'an confirms this through a dialogue between Abraham and his people: ::'''`Behold,' he said to this father and his people: `What worship you?' They said: `We worship idols, and we remain constantly in attendance on them.' He said: `Do they listen to you when you call (on them), Or do you good or harm?' They said: `Nay, but we found our fathers doing thus.' '''(Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara': 71-74) Abraham is demanding a good outcome, benefits that his people would reap from their pious belief and behavior. In fact we might consider Abraham the first pragmatist in the sense that he sought the public good and not private privilege. However, his nation did not share his view; they followed their fathers' examples. The Qur'an, in contrast, presents the prophetic standard as a regime of permissions and prohibitions which are based on whether the outcomes of human behavior are beneficial or harmful: ::''' [F]or he [the Prophet] commands them what is agreeable and forbids them what is disagreeable (unseemly); he allows them as lawful what is good (and healthy) and prohibits them from what is vile; he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. '''(Surah 7 Al A'raf 157) The Qur'an stresses and relies on this standard in deciding what is permissible and what is taboo3. The Qur'an presents the laws given for human benefit as the crux of the call of all the messengers. Monotheism, which is the essence of these laws, is the message of all prophets, all people of knowledge and all those who call for justice. The Qur'anic recitation of the prophetic message, "Worship God and eschew evil" demands that the people come to the word of equity. The cause of all prophets has thus shifted from the theological and metaphysical to the social and political, and the religious issue becomes the secular issue. This movement is an important one to which we must pay attention, so that we will not separate the sacred from the profane, the divine from the secular, the world from the hereafter. The core of the relationship between law and religion, and the mission of all prophets, is in the solution of the problem of violence and subjugation. Throughout history we see that the main problem with the human condition is humanity's rejection of the call for equality, or in the Qur'anic language, the word of equity4. Those who reject the word of equity have assumed superiority over all humanity, exalting themselves as gods above others and assuming for themselves all the sacredness and transcendentalism of the divine5. In these examples, we see that the common message of all prophets was to bring people to worshipping God and taking them away from obeying wicked tyrannies (taghut) even while the subjugated ones accept this domination rather than throwing it off. The prophets demanded an end to this repeated rotation of roles between oppressors and oppressed because they understood that such a polarized relationship is based on violence and subjugation. It is easy to argue that the major conflict in human existence is between theological and humanistic visions, but in fact, the major problem human beings face is social. It is about oppression and justice, equality and privileges, an oppressor imposing his earthly divinity and slaves oppressed by their own ignorance, succumbing to power and accepting domination. History, too, presses for a solution. So, if we can respond to the problem of violence and history together, we will give humanity a forcible push toward solving its greatest dilemma, the schizophrenic disease of all civilizations. The birth of healing and the end of the crises is near. Our challenge lies in how to turn the relationship between law and religion from being destructive and painful to being constructive and healing6. ==Footnotes== 1 "When your Lord drew forth from the children of Adam, from their loins-their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): `Am I not your Lord?' They said: `We do testify' (This), lest you should say on the Day of Judgement: `Of this we were never mindful."' Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 172. 2 For instance, the Qur'an says: "Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, And the alternation of Night and Day . . . there are indeed signs for those of hearts (understanding)." Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 164. 3 For example, the Qur'an mentions the reason behind forbidding wine by using the standard of weighing harms and benefits: "They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: `In them is great sin, and some profit for people; but the sin is greater than the profit . . , "' Id at 219. 4 Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 64. Christ described the difficulty of the path that leads to life: "[N]arrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life, and those who find them are few." Matt 7:14. 5 The Qur'an quotes Pharaoh's superiority and assumed divinity as we saw above in verses: 79 An-Nazi'at: 24; 28 Al-Qasas: 38; 26 Ash-Shu'araa: 290. Pharaoh even threatened those who believed in Moses. (Pharaoh) said: `Believe you in him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader who has taught you magic! I will certainly cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have crucified on trunks of palm trees: so shall you know for certain which of us can give the more severe and the more lasting punishment!' Surah 20 Ta Ha: 71. And we see the same in the dialogue of Abraham with the pharaoh of his age. "Abraham said: `My Lord is He who gives life and death.' He said: `I give life and death . . ."' Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 258. 6 Christ described the difficulty of the path that leads to life: "[N]arrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life, and those who find them are few." Matt 7:14. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 53 129 2009-08-23T10:34:40Z Admin 1 moved [[Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] to [[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] 0 16 24 23 2009-04-29T13:23:51Z Admin 1 /* Footnotes */ wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The Prophets taught their followers how to disobey. It is ironic that disobedience is found in pacifism, obedience in violence; it is ironic that most world armies train and manufacture soldiers to obey and implement orders with no objections. However, the principle of obedience to violence has its costs. The Torah and the Qur'an mention that Adam's son, the killer, was hit with loss and eaten with regret. This is the unconscious disease that inflicts soldiers who enter criminal wars: just as pollution rises when we abuse the environment, so would these consequences appear when we abuse our souls in violence. The medical disorders of the soldiers returning &om the Gulf war and the Vietnam war are signs of this troubled conscience. The resignation of the French Defense Minister during the Gulf war and the refusal of some Russian generals to prosecute the war against the Chechens are others. Even though there is extensive research about the physical and psychological disorders caused by war, we do not pay enough attention to the mental costs of maintaining institutions that have become obsolete. The nervous system is a delicate realm and any mistaken use will manifest itself. We tax this system when we engage people in obsolete practices such as war, which has lost its function and viability. The world wants a soldier to be like a rifle devoid of choice and subject to orders without a right to object. Soldiers are told "if you go to war, you might not get killed but if you do not go you will definitely die." Pharaoh told the same to those who rebelled against him, left his service and rejected his path. He threatened: "Be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm trees." (Surah 20 Ta Ha:71) But his subjects decided to stand as Adam's son stood and confronted his threats with: "Never shall we regard you as more than the clear signs that have come to us or than Him who created us! So decree whatever you desire to decree: for you can only decree the life of this world." (Id. at 72) Human beings have deeper yearnings than that for violence. They have needs which the prophets grasped and to which they addressed themselves. The Prophets directed their call to humanity, saying: "you have one divine Master whom you should obey." Should any human ask you to return to the law of muscles you must decline without hesitation. We have been told: "No one can serve two masters." (Matt 6:24) "Serve God, and eschew tyranny." (Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 36) The Prophets realized the blessing of knowing good and evil: one who truly understands the difference between good and evil becomes incapable of doing evil or responding to the call of evil1. This is a significant point in the teaching of the Prophets. Their first step was to teach people to withdraw from evil and to continue on the path of good. A soldier who knows the difference between good and evil is useless in the armies of the world. Who would buy arms that are capable of disobeying orders? Who would buy a sword that distinguishes good from evil? This is what the Prophets wanted to manufacture, not a rifle made of flesh and bone. The prophets wanted to found and establish a new way, the way of Adam's son, the one whose position can be summarized as follows: "I know good and evil and have left the law of the jungle. You could kill me but you can not turn me into a killer." It is as if Abel is saying to his brother: "Yes you can kill me. I will die anyway even if you did not kill me. But I will not make my death validate killing. I will deny you the benefit of killing. I will do so by declining to enter the battle of bodies with you, because if I defend myself you will believe in the effectiveness of killing. I will abrogate and cancel the benefit of killing and make it vile even in your eyes." And Abel succeeded when "Cain said to the Lord, `My punishment is heavier than I can bear." (Gen 4:13)2 "The Lord said, `What have you done? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. (Id. at 10) In the Qur'an, Cain becomes full of remorse and regret. For while soldiers conceive of success in combat as heroic and even that assassinating a person who is armed and protected as skillful, the killing of those who do not defend themselves is seen as a grisly murder. Indeed, to resist passively is, ironically, economical, since not many can be killed by such a method unlike battles, which end up destroying many lives, both the defeated and the victorious. By declining to defend ourselves, like Adam's son, the Prophets and Socrates, we render killing criminal and remove awe from it. The world still lives with our inability to adapt to the evolution of the human nervous system. Respecting human consciousness reached a high plateau in the calls of Jesus and Muhammad, to the point of calling for the love of one's enemies and responding with compassion to those who persecute us3. "If you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Even the tax-collectors do as much as that." (Matt 5:46) The Qur'an moves a step further; it no longer orders Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) companions to love their enernies but it states that they already love them4. We see in these two verses the possibility of loving one's enemies. We must approach this call to loving one's enemies on a level that removes it from the realm of insanity and impossibility as we have always conceived of it throughout history. We should be able to disconnect the body from ideas, for the body is not born with evil. Rather, we fill the mind with evil, taking the wrongful of our two paths: "By the soul (self) and the proportion and order given to it; He inspired it as to its wrong and its right. Truly he succeeds that purifies it. And he fails that vilifies it!" (Surah 91 Al Shams: 7-10) Intellectual Healing In trying to heal the disease of the soul, the choice for violence, we might consider how we respond to those who have physical diseases. Do we not love the sick person even while we hate the disease and strive with all our effort to combat it? What would we think if we saw a doctor who believed in healing sick persons by killing them instead of eradicating the disease? Who would ever use the services of such a doctor? Yet, is not a person with sick ideas a sick person; and is it not possible to love this person while hating his or her ideas? A sick person is normally in dire need for love and compassion. A person sick with the diseases of ignorance and hatred is also in dire need for love and knowledge, because knowledge is love and love is knowledge. Faith in God, His prophets and books entails this: we must learn to create love, to turn hatred into love. This is the ultimate investment of human beings. "Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better (with goodness): then will the person, with whom there is hatred between you and that person, become like a friend and intimate!" (Surah 41 Fussilat: 34) These are not mere wishes or dreams; neither are they utopian thoughts. They were certainties for prophets and we will come to discover them. It will be possible to capture thetri through other fornls of knowing like science. I want to call for the possibility of such a discovery just as John the Baptist did, crying in the wilderness for repentance5. "It was of him that the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, `A voice cries in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord; Clear a straight path for him."' (Matt 3:3) I want to cry, as John the Baptist did, that the person who caused the explosion in Oklahoma city, the person who gassed the subways of Tokyo, the person who killed Saddat and the person who killed Rabin, that all those who made decisions to go to war in the last half of this century are screaming about their ignorance of history. All those killed as a result of these battles are human offerings, justified only by the thought that our ancient ancestors were cannibals. Ultimately, our scientists will be able to articulate the reality of this horror methodologically and will become competent in convincing us of this reality. Even now, experts in various fields show us that the truth can make a significant difference, but we must cooperate in clarifying such matters. And we must never get weary, never give up. Jesus taught us perseverance in forgiving those who wrong us beyond patience6. "Jesus replied, `I do not say seven times but seventy times seven." (Matt 18: 22) ==Footnotes== 1 This is also what is expressed in the Bible in: "The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil." Gen 3:22. 2 In the preceding passage, God calls Cain to account. See what the Lord God said, in the Old Testament, to Adam's son, the killer: "The LORD asked Cain, `Where is your brother Abel?' 'I do not know,' Cain answered. `Am I my brother's keeper?"' Gen 4:9. 3 See the verses. Jesus says: "You have heard that they were told, `An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But what I tell you is this: Do not resist those who wrong you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn and offer him the other also. You have heard that they were told, `Love your neighbour and hate your enemy."' Matt. 5:44(King James Version). "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; only so can you be children of your heavenly Father, who causes the sun to rise on good and bad alike, and sends the rain on the innocent and the wicked [on the just and on the unjust.]" Matt 5:38-45. 4 "Ah! You are those who love them, but they love you not-though you believe in the whole of the Book . . ." Surah 3 Ali `Iznran: 119. 5 "In the course of time John the Baptist appeared in the Judaean wilderness, proclaiming this message: `Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is upon you! "' Matt 3: I-2. 6 "'Then Peter came to him and asked, `Lord, how often am I to forgive my brother if he goes on wronging me? As many as seven times?' Jesus replied, `I do not say seven times but seventy times seven."' Mat 18:21. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 23 2009-04-29T13:22:04Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} The Prophets taught their followers how to disobey. It is ironic that disobedience is found in pacifism, obedience in violence; it is ironic that most world ...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The Prophets taught their followers how to disobey. It is ironic that disobedience is found in pacifism, obedience in violence; it is ironic that most world armies train and manufacture soldiers to obey and implement orders with no objections. However, the principle of obedience to violence has its costs. The Torah and the Qur'an mention that Adam's son, the killer, was hit with loss and eaten with regret. This is the unconscious disease that inflicts soldiers who enter criminal wars: just as pollution rises when we abuse the environment, so would these consequences appear when we abuse our souls in violence. The medical disorders of the soldiers returning &om the Gulf war and the Vietnam war are signs of this troubled conscience. The resignation of the French Defense Minister during the Gulf war and the refusal of some Russian generals to prosecute the war against the Chechens are others. Even though there is extensive research about the physical and psychological disorders caused by war, we do not pay enough attention to the mental costs of maintaining institutions that have become obsolete. The nervous system is a delicate realm and any mistaken use will manifest itself. We tax this system when we engage people in obsolete practices such as war, which has lost its function and viability. The world wants a soldier to be like a rifle devoid of choice and subject to orders without a right to object. Soldiers are told "if you go to war, you might not get killed but if you do not go you will definitely die." Pharaoh told the same to those who rebelled against him, left his service and rejected his path. He threatened: "Be sure I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you crucified on trunks of palm trees." (Surah 20 Ta Ha:71) But his subjects decided to stand as Adam's son stood and confronted his threats with: "Never shall we regard you as more than the clear signs that have come to us or than Him who created us! So decree whatever you desire to decree: for you can only decree the life of this world." (Id. at 72) Human beings have deeper yearnings than that for violence. They have needs which the prophets grasped and to which they addressed themselves. The Prophets directed their call to humanity, saying: "you have one divine Master whom you should obey." Should any human ask you to return to the law of muscles you must decline without hesitation. We have been told: "No one can serve two masters." (Matt 6:24) "Serve God, and eschew tyranny." (Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 36) The Prophets realized the blessing of knowing good and evil: one who truly understands the difference between good and evil becomes incapable of doing evil or responding to the call of evil1. This is a significant point in the teaching of the Prophets. Their first step was to teach people to withdraw from evil and to continue on the path of good. A soldier who knows the difference between good and evil is useless in the armies of the world. Who would buy arms that are capable of disobeying orders? Who would buy a sword that distinguishes good from evil? This is what the Prophets wanted to manufacture, not a rifle made of flesh and bone. The prophets wanted to found and establish a new way, the way of Adam's son, the one whose position can be summarized as follows: "I know good and evil and have left the law of the jungle. You could kill me but you can not turn me into a killer." It is as if Abel is saying to his brother: "Yes you can kill me. I will die anyway even if you did not kill me. But I will not make my death validate killing. I will deny you the benefit of killing. I will do so by declining to enter the battle of bodies with you, because if I defend myself you will believe in the effectiveness of killing. I will abrogate and cancel the benefit of killing and make it vile even in your eyes." And Abel succeeded when "Cain said to the Lord, `My punishment is heavier than I can bear." (Gen 4:13)2 "The Lord said, `What have you done? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. (Id. at 10) In the Qur'an, Cain becomes full of remorse and regret. For while soldiers conceive of success in combat as heroic and even that assassinating a person who is armed and protected as skillful, the killing of those who do not defend themselves is seen as a grisly murder. Indeed, to resist passively is, ironically, economical, since not many can be killed by such a method unlike battles, which end up destroying many lives, both the defeated and the victorious. By declining to defend ourselves, like Adam's son, the Prophets and Socrates, we render killing criminal and remove awe from it. The world still lives with our inability to adapt to the evolution of the human nervous system. Respecting human consciousness reached a high plateau in the calls of Jesus and Muhammad, to the point of calling for the love of one's enemies and responding with compassion to those who persecute us3. "If you love only those who love you, what reward can you expect? Even the tax-collectors do as much as that." (Matt 5:46) The Qur'an moves a step further; it no longer orders Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) companions to love their enernies but it states that they already love them4. We see in these two verses the possibility of loving one's enemies. We must approach this call to loving one's enemies on a level that removes it from the realm of insanity and impossibility as we have always conceived of it throughout history. We should be able to disconnect the body from ideas, for the body is not born with evil. Rather, we fill the mind with evil, taking the wrongful of our two paths: "By the soul (self) and the proportion and order given to it; He inspired it as to its wrong and its right. Truly he succeeds that purifies it. And he fails that vilifies it!" (Surah 91 Al Shams: 7-10) Intellectual Healing In trying to heal the disease of the soul, the choice for violence, we might consider how we respond to those who have physical diseases. Do we not love the sick person even while we hate the disease and strive with all our effort to combat it? What would we think if we saw a doctor who believed in healing sick persons by killing them instead of eradicating the disease? Who would ever use the services of such a doctor? Yet, is not a person with sick ideas a sick person; and is it not possible to love this person while hating his or her ideas? A sick person is normally in dire need for love and compassion. A person sick with the diseases of ignorance and hatred is also in dire need for love and knowledge, because knowledge is love and love is knowledge. Faith in God, His prophets and books entails this: we must learn to create love, to turn hatred into love. This is the ultimate investment of human beings. "Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better (with goodness): then will the person, with whom there is hatred between you and that person, become like a friend and intimate!" (Surah 41 Fussilat: 34) These are not mere wishes or dreams; neither are they utopian thoughts. They were certainties for prophets and we will come to discover them. It will be possible to capture thetri through other fornls of knowing like science. I want to call for the possibility of such a discovery just as John the Baptist did, crying in the wilderness for repentance5. "It was of him that the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, `A voice cries in the wilderness. Prepare the way for the Lord; Clear a straight path for him."' (Matt 3:3) I want to cry, as John the Baptist did, that the person who caused the explosion in Oklahoma city, the person who gassed the subways of Tokyo, the person who killed Saddat and the person who killed Rabin, that all those who made decisions to go to war in the last half of this century are screaming about their ignorance of history. All those killed as a result of these battles are human offerings, justified only by the thought that our ancient ancestors were cannibals. Ultimately, our scientists will be able to articulate the reality of this horror methodologically and will become competent in convincing us of this reality. Even now, experts in various fields show us that the truth can make a significant difference, but we must cooperate in clarifying such matters. And we must never get weary, never give up. Jesus taught us perseverance in forgiving those who wrong us beyond patience6. "Jesus replied, `I do not say seven times but seventy times seven." (Matt 18: 22) ==Footnotes== 1 This is also what is expressed in the Bible in: "The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil." Gen 3:22. 2 In the preceding passage, God calls Cain to account. See what the Lord God said, in the Old Testament, to Adam's son, the killer: "The LORD asked Cain, `Where is your brother Abel?' 'I do not know,' Cain answered. `Am I my brother's keeper?"' Gen 4:9. 3 See the verses. Jesus says: "You have heard that they were told, `An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.' But what I tell you is this: Do not resist those who wrong you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn and offer him the other also. You have heard that they were told, `Love your neighbour and hate your enemy."' Matt. 5:44(King James Version). "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; only so can you be children of your heavenly Father, who causes the sun to rise on good and bad alike, and sends the rain on the innocent and the wicked [on the just and on the unjust.]" Matt 5:38-45. 4 "Ah! You are those who love them, but they love you not-though you believe in the whole of the Book . . ." Surah 3 Ali `Iznran: 119. 5 "In the course of time John the Baptist appeared in the Judaean wilderness, proclaiming this message: `Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is upon you! "' Matt 3: I-2. 6 "'Then Peter came to him and asked, `Lord, how often am I to forgive my brother if he goes on wronging me? As many as seven times?' Jesus replied, `I do not say seven times but seventy times seven."' Mat 18:21. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 47 110 2009-08-23T09:56:22Z Admin 1 moved [[Q.3: What are the main features of your project "The laws of changing individuals and societies?" Do you consider that project an off-shoot of Malek Bennabi's project, "Crises of Civilizations?"]] to [[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] 0 48 112 2009-08-23T09:57:41Z Admin 1 moved [[Q. 1: What are some of the major stages in your intellectual progress?]] to [[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] 0 36 70 2009-05-07T14:34:43Z Admin 1 Created page with '<videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash>' wikitext text/x-wiki <videoflash type="googlevideo">-7611582174323925406|250|150</videoflash> 0 9 16 2009-04-29T11:50:53Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} =="Sunnaniah " (Nomotheticism)== The Qur'an is full of historical laws (or patterns),1 thus testifying that human history has emerged from the era of the ...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} =="Sunnaniah " (Nomotheticism)== The Qur'an is full of historical laws (or patterns),1 thus testifying that human history has emerged from the era of the supernatural to "Sunnaniah," the era of nomotheticism; and those with knowledge and call for justice have replaced those from the world of prophecy. People were able to emerge from the supernatural into historicity by tracing the decline of nations and understanding the factors that led to their rise and fall. Even though an orientation toward a universe based on laws was present in all prophetic traditions, the reality of a social life based independently on laws, and departing from the supernatural, arrived late to the lives of people in all societies. When we compare the testimony of the people of knowledge with divine revelation as we have it, we encounter a startling conclusion: people have reached a new moment in the reception of truth. Unlike critical moments of truth in the past, modern people receive the word of God not primarily through prophetic symbols but through observation of events and the results of history. As those with knowledge inherited the world of prophets when prophecy ended and knowledge remained, so after the scientific came to coexist with the supernatural, the supernatural dissolved and the scientific remained. ==Signs of the External World and Verses of the Book== As I have previously suggested, the symbolic signs and external reality are inseparable, for there is no way of grasping reality without the means of symbolic signs. These are the signifier and signified. The Qur'an connects signs of the external world with signs and verses from the Book.2 The Qur'an considers the universe, human events and the symbols that intercept them all signs to increase human mastery over existence and even over humanity, permitting humans to understand how to use laws for good and not ill. The Qur'an says it will show us the universe and historical events to provide evidence for divine order and its role in bringing out human potential. Hence, what has been revealed to prophets from the heavens and what those of knowledge discover by exploring the world will validate one another: "Soon will we show them our signs in the horizons, and in themselves, until it becomes manifest to them that it is the truth. Is it not enough that your Lord does witness all things?" (Surah 41 Fussilat: 53)3 Yet, unlike the ancient prophets, modern people of knowledge do not support each other's causes in calling forjustice. In fact, the Qur'an foreshadows this crisis in human history, even as it records human fears about the coming of the moment of knowledge. It recites what happened when those who lived as contemporaries of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) asked him for the supernatural, for miracles, like those brought by previous prophets. We hear the Qur'an's answer: this book is enough evidence for you. As the Surah warns: They say: `Why are not signs sent down to him from his Lord?' Say: `The signs are indeed with God: and I am indeed a clear (articulate) warner.' ::'''And is it not enough for them that We have sent down to you the Book which is recited to them? Verily, in it is mercy and a reminder to a people who believe'''. (Surah 29 A1 `Ankabut: 50-51)4 Those who refuse this answer, demanding miracles, repudiate the prophetic chain through which the end of the era of prophecy is joined with the beginning of the era of knowledge. The Qur'an tells us to travel through the history of the nations to see what happened to those liars who refused justice among the people. Using historical evidence and reference points as our guide, we see God's condemnation of those of knowledge who give lie to the important truth of the prophetic chain. This chain repudiates any privileged access to special sources of knowledge unavailable to others: "Patterns (laws) have passed away before you: travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those who were liars." (Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 137)5 These liars deny a critical moment in human history, the moment of the seal of prophecy, which is an absolute, final departure from the metaphysical, &om a style of receiving knowledge through transcendental means to a scientific method, historical knowledge based on evidence. If we can trace this chain of prophecy, we are empowered to leave the world of the supernatural and enter a scientific world with laws and patterns. The prophets founded and established the idea of monotheism in their own prophetic style, undergirded by prophetic unity. Those with knowledge are similarly under the sacred obligation to incorporate the central ideas of monotheism into a methodical science and practice. The unity of prophethood is evidenced in the way the prophets confirmed and consolidated each other's messages, predicting those prophets who would follow them just as scientists predict what findings could follow from their experiments. To confirm their unity, the prophets would take a pledge, asking for allegiance from their people, asking them to have faith, to believe and support the coming one. The Qur'an demands no less of them today: ::'''Behold! God took the Covenant of the Prophets, (saying): `I give you a Book and wisdom; then comes to you a messenger, confirming what is with you; Do you believe in him and render him help?' God Said: `Do you agree, and take this my Covenant as binding on you?' They said: `We agree.' He said: `Then bear witness, and I am with you among the witnesses'.''' ::'''If any turn back after this, they are then the perverted transgressors'''. (Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 81-82) ==Footnotes== 1 Historical or natural laws are referred to in the Qur'an with the word (sunnah). One of the verses that deals with the immutability of the laws of the universe reads: "[A]re they but looking for the law (sunnah) the ancients were dealt with? But no change will you find in God's law (sunnah); no shitting will you find in God's law (sunnah)." Surah 35 Fatir: 43. 2 In the Bible we read: Beware of false prophets, who come to you dressed up as sheep (in sheep's clothingl, but undemeath they are savage wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit. Can grapes be picked from briars, or figs from thistles? A good tree always yields sound fruit, and a poor [corrupt] tree bad [evill fiuit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, or a poor tree sound fruit. A tree that does not yield sound fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. That is why I say you will recognize them by their fruit. Matt 7:15-20. The content of this message, if we could specify it, could be the basis to resolving many problems of humanity. Thus, exposing these texts with historical inputs could clarify them more. 3 17. This indicates that evidence from the natural world and historical events validate the message of prophets. The Qur'an reads: Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the eatth; in the alteration of the night and day; in the sailing of the ships through the sea for the profit of humankind; in the rain which God sends down from the skies, and the life which he gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which trail between the sky and the earth-are indeed signs for a people that reason. Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 164. Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the alteration of night and day-There are indeed signs for those of hearts. Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 190. And in Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara', eight historical events are presented with the following comment after each case: "Verily in this is a Sign. But most of them do not believe." This statement is repeated 8 times following these verses: Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara': 8-68, t03-121 139¬158, 174-190. These same historical events are presented in detail in Surah 7 A1 A'raf, and briefly in Surah 26 or only in names in Surah 50. "Before them derued the people of Noah the companions of the Russ, Thamud. The Ad, Pharaoh, the brethren of Lut, The companions of the Wood, and Tubba'. Each one of them rejected the messengers, and our warning was duly fulfilled." Surah 50 Qaf: 12-14. 4 18. It is said, at other places, this cry for miracles is also rebuked: Say those without knowledge: `Why does not God speak unto us? Or why does not come unto us a sign? So said the people before them words of similar import. Their hearts are alike. We have indeed made clear the signs unto any people who hold firmly their belief.' Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 118. `Nay,' they say, `(these are) medleys of dreams!' `Nay, he forged it!' `Nay he is (but) a poet! Let him then bring a Sign like the ones that were to (prophets) of old!' Surah 21 AI Anbiya': 5. They said: `We shall not believe in you, until you cause a spring to gush forth for us from the earth. Or (until) you have a garden of date trees and vines, and cause rivers to gush forth in their midst, carrying abundant water. Or you cause the sky to fall in pieces, as you claimed, against us, or you bring God and the angels before (us) face to face. Or you have a house adorned with gold, or you mount a ladder right into the skies. No, we shall not even believe in your mounting until you send down to us a book that we can read.' Say: `Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a human messenger?' Surah 17 A1 Isra': 90-93. Now are they but looking for the way the ancients were dealt with? But no change will you find in God's pattern (law). No turning off will you find in God's pattem (law). Surah 35 Fatir: 43. 5 By using this style of deduction, the evidence and reference point are based on history. In this style, the Qur'an's reference is historical results: Do you not see how your Lord dealt with `Ad. Of the (city of) Iram, with lofty pillars, The like of which were not produced in (all) the land. And with Thamud, who cut out rocks in the valley. And with Pharaoh, Lord of stakes. (All) these transgress~ beyond bounds in the lands. And heaped therein mischief (on mischief). Therefore did your Lord pour on them a scourge of diverse chastisements: For your Lord is (as a guardian) on a watchtower. Surah 89 A1 Fajr: 6-14. Such were the villages (populations) we destroyed when they committed iniquities; but We fixed an appointed time for their destruction. Surah 18 A1 Kahf: 59. And We sent Moses, with our (clear) signs and authority manifest, Unto Pharaoh and his chiefs: but they followed the command of Pharaoh was no right guide. He will go before his people on the Day of Judgement, and lead them into the fire but woeful indeed will be the place to which they are led! And they are followed by a curse in this (life) and on the Day of Judgement: and woeful is the gift which shall be given (unto them)! These are some of the stories of communities which We relate unto you: of them some are standing and some have been mown down (by the sickle of time). It was not We that wronged (were unjust to) them: they wronged themselves. The deities, other than God, whom they invoked profited them no wit when there issued the decree of your Lord: nor did they add aught (to their lot) but perdition! Such is the chastisement of thy Lord when He takes communities in the midst of their injustice: grievous indeed, and severe is his chastisement. In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter: that is a day for which mankind will be gathered together: that will be a Day of Testimony. (Surah 11 Hud: 96-103). If the Qur'an mentions the ends of nations that were unjust, then the ends of many other nations after the era of the Qur'an provide many historical lessons equally. The message of the historical tales in the Qur'an is clear: if the following lessons were not enough, wait for the coming ones. The law of God does not change in the rise and fall of nations who mistreat people and are unjust to them: Such were the populations We destroyed when they committed iniquities; but We fixed an appointed time for their destruction. (Surah 18 A1 Kahf: 59). And how many populations We destroyed, which exulted in their life (of prosperity)! Now those habitations of theirs, after them, are destroyed-all but a few. And We are their heirs. Surah 28 A1 Qasas: 58. Nor was thy Lord the one to destroy the towns (a population) until He had sent to its center a messenger, reciting to them our signs: nor are We going to destroy town (a population) except when its members are unjust. Id. at 59. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 17 29 28 2009-05-06T06:26:24Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} We cannot understand the role of either law or religion unless we understand human nature. We must believe that the human being is capable of knowing good and evil, benefit and harm, because our bodies by nature are vulnerable to differences in the environment (e.g., can live only within limited temperatures), a fact that defies a relativist attitude toward good and evil. The Qur'an, for example, stresses such distinctions: ::'''The blind and the seeing are not alike, ::'''Nor are the depths of darkness and the light; ::'''Nor are the (chilly) shade and the (genial) heat of the sun: ::'''Nor are alike those that are living and those that are dead . . . '''(Surah 35 Fatir: 19-23) We also read in Surah: "Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better (with goodness) . . . ." (Surah 41 Fussilat: 34) A human being is a vessel into which we put culture, religion, law and good and evil. People are born not knowing anything; they are of our own making, as the Qur'an says: "It is He who brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers when you knew nothing; and He gave you hearing and sight and intelligence and affection: that you may give thanks." (Surah 16 Al Nahl: 78) Unless we understand this, we will not be able to leave corruption and bloodshed. Without this, we will not be able to bear responsibility as Adam did and we will stay on the path of Satan. We will have concocted a lie against God if we regress back. Religion is about salvation in the here-and-now and in the hereafter. Salvation is to accept good and reject evil, to refuse to become an instrument for evil, to cooperate for good and righteousness. "Help you one another in righteousness (compassion) and piety, but help you not one another in sin and rancour . . ." (Surah 5 Al Ma'idah: 3) "`In very truth, I tell you', said Jesus, `that everyone who commits sin is a slave (of sin)."' (John 8:34) Both the Bible and Qur'an show us ways of dealing with evil that go beyond the simple dichotomies of ordering people to stay away from evil or to destroy evil. At the risk of simplifying the issue, it is important to clarify how we still fail in approaching the mental realm. Killing the evil one is like breaking the glass instead of washing it. Since we do not accept doctors who kill their patients, it is hard to understand why we accept it when intellectuals, or those who claim to be sons of God, continually glorify the killing of the ignorant instead of teaching and guiding them1. When we understand this, we reach serenity and bliss, or what Indian philosophy may describe as Nirvana, a state, which cannot be found by those who condemn others and absolve themselves. In the Qur'anic language one reaches what is termed the "pure heart" (al-qalb assalim) or wholeness when the heart becomes devoid of hatred. As the Qur'an says, "The Day will come whereon neither wealth nor children will avail, But only he (will be saved) that brings to God a sound heart." (Surah 26 Al-Shu'ara: 88-89) In other words, violence comes from false knowledge, and peace in the heart requires true knowledge. As the Bible says, "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) And the Qur'an remarks, "Those who believe, and whose hearts find serenity in the remembrance of God: for without doubt in the remembrance of God do hearts find serenity." (Surah 13 Ra'd: 28) When serenity comes through knowledge, it is even manifested on the tongue, for language becomes devoid of abuse. The hand also stops harming, just as Adam's son refused to stretch his hand and harm his brother. Our serenity signals a commitment to reaching others through understanding and comprehension, even if the commitment is one-sided: "[He] committed them to the command of self restraint, and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it. And God has full knowledge of all things." (Surah 48 Al Fath: 26) Just as religion is about this serenity, law is the system by which taboos and duties are set. Law is inherently needed in any collectivity, and it emerges automatically when people meet. In the first days, if a person entered a cave and it was empty, s/he could sit anywhere sThe liked. But if another person was there, the already occupied place became forbidden to the new arnval. Thus, taboo, and the notion of right and duty, emerge even in simple situations. When children play, they set rules by which both sides must abide. Law by its nature requires the commitment of all sides in order to provide protection when violation occurs. When law is violated and some want to sit in the place , of others, social consciousness must be used to intervene and prevent such a breakdown. Law by its nature presupposes a deparlure from violence. Thus, those who refuse to leave violence cannot enter the world of law. Entering the world of law is voluntary and those who enter this world are subject to it equally. The dilemma of law does lies in its severity or leniency, for this imbalance can be modified with the consensus of the community or involved parties. The problem lies in the fact that people rebel against the law and thereby break the covenant and that the lawmakers apply the law to punish some while letting others get away. This is the injustice that breaks down societies. ::'''Nor was thy Lord the one to destroy villages (a population) until he had sent to its centre a messenger, rehearsing to them our signs: nor are We going to destroy villages (a population) except when its members are unjust.''' (Surah 28 A1 Qasas: 59) Law provides protection for those who come under its authority. They relinquish their sovereign right to protect themselves and surrender it to law. Living in a society entails protecting its members and arbitrating among them with justice. But when society relinquishes this protection to the individual, it regresses to the law of the jungle. There can never be law where people rely on their own individual power instead of resorting to society to resolve their conflicts. Similarly, there can never be democracy where individuals resort to their personal powers or where they have the belief that their own power is sufficient to protect them. Law is about stopping violence to solve conflicts peacefully, so where physical power rules, law disappears. And where knowledge and understanding rule, law occurs. The dividing line between lawlessness and law depends on whether authority resides in the realm of the intellect or in the realm of biceps2. "Hast thou not turned thy vision to thy Lord? How He doth prolong the shadow! If He willed, He could make it stationary! Then, We make the sun its evidence." (Surah 25 A1 Furqan: 45) In a lawful society, authority is not contingent on the body. The authoritative point of reference decides the nature of a given society; it places the society either within or without the boundaries of legitimacy and peace. Law and violence negate each other. There is no law where there is violence and there is no violence where there is law. Of course, this is a complex idea: the mechanisms of law and violence escape us the way the movement of two mobile bodies confuses us. But as I have argued, just as our misconceptions of the universe will not change any of its laws or movements, so the natural relationship between law and violence will not change just because we think violence is a vital part of our lives. Law and religion should not be founded on human whims and illusions. Nor should they be based on mere mental perceptions of the world; rather, our intellectuals should be creating a methodology using historical knowledge for weighing our perceptions, with harm and benefit to the creation as its point of reference. Historical knowledge permits us to sift through the harrn and benefit of countless human actions; "you will recognize them by their fruit3." With history, we know more about good and evil, a knowledge that will gradually deepen and consolidate. ==Footnotes== 1 Jesus describes the "intellectuals" of his age in many ways: They make up heavy loads and pile them on the shoulders of others, but will not themselves lift a finger to ease the burden. Whatever they do is done for show . . ; they love to have the place of honour at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues, to be greeted respectfully in the street, and to be addressed as "rabbi" . . . . `Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces; you do not enter yourselves, and when others try to enter you stop them. Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to win one convert; and when you have succeeded you make him twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves.' Man 23:2-15. 2 The Qur'an brings examples on how our own mental perceptions take precedence over reality. The Qur'an discusses how humans could be more lost than animals because they are not programmed with instincts the way animals are. Since humans have choice and the knowledge of good and evil, their deviation is worse than animalistic behavior, which is regulated and programmed by instinct. The Qur'an uses the sun as an example of how our own perceptions could be misleading. 3 "[T]he foam (scum) dries out like forth cast out; while that which benefits humankind remains on the earth." Surah 13 A1 Ra'd: 17. And in the Bible, we read: "You will recognize them by their fruit. Can grapes be picked from briars, or figs &om thistles? A good tree always yields sound fruit, and a poor [corrupt] tree bad [evil] fiuit." Matt 7:16-17. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 28 2009-05-06T06:25:48Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} THE PUR.POSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION We cannot understand the role of either law or religion unless we understand human nature. We must believe t...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} THE PUR.POSE OF LAW AND THE PURPOSE OF RELIGION We cannot understand the role of either law or religion unless we understand human nature. We must believe that the human being is capable of knowing good and evil, benefit and harm, because our bodies by nature are vulnerable to differences in the environment (e.g., can live only within limited temperatures), a fact that defies a relativist attitude toward good and evil. The Qur'an, for example, stresses such distinctions: ::'''The blind and the seeing are not alike, ::'''Nor are the depths of darkness and the light; ::'''Nor are the (chilly) shade and the (genial) heat of the sun: ::'''Nor are alike those that are living and those that are dead . . . '''(Surah 35 Fatir: 19-23) We also read in Surah: "Nor can Goodness and Evil be equal. Repel (evil) with what is better (with goodness) . . . ." (Surah 41 Fussilat: 34) A human being is a vessel into which we put culture, religion, law and good and evil. People are born not knowing anything; they are of our own making, as the Qur'an says: "It is He who brought you forth from the wombs of your mothers when you knew nothing; and He gave you hearing and sight and intelligence and affection: that you may give thanks." (Surah 16 Al Nahl: 78) Unless we understand this, we will not be able to leave corruption and bloodshed. Without this, we will not be able to bear responsibility as Adam did and we will stay on the path of Satan. We will have concocted a lie against God if we regress back. Religion is about salvation in the here-and-now and in the hereafter. Salvation is to accept good and reject evil, to refuse to become an instrument for evil, to cooperate for good and righteousness. "Help you one another in righteousness (compassion) and piety, but help you not one another in sin and rancour . . ." (Surah 5 Al Ma'idah: 3) "`In very truth, I tell you', said Jesus, `that everyone who commits sin is a slave (of sin)."' (John 8:34) Both the Bible and Qur'an show us ways of dealing with evil that go beyond the simple dichotomies of ordering people to stay away from evil or to destroy evil. At the risk of simplifying the issue, it is important to clarify how we still fail in approaching the mental realm. Killing the evil one is like breaking the glass instead of washing it. Since we do not accept doctors who kill their patients, it is hard to understand why we accept it when intellectuals, or those who claim to be sons of God, continually glorify the killing of the ignorant instead of teaching and guiding them1. When we understand this, we reach serenity and bliss, or what Indian philosophy may describe as Nirvana, a state, which cannot be found by those who condemn others and absolve themselves. In the Qur'anic language one reaches what is termed the "pure heart" (al-qalb assalim) or wholeness when the heart becomes devoid of hatred. As the Qur'an says, "The Day will come whereon neither wealth nor children will avail, But only he (will be saved) that brings to God a sound heart." (Surah 26 Al-Shu'ara: 88-89) In other words, violence comes from false knowledge, and peace in the heart requires true knowledge. As the Bible says, "And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32) And the Qur'an remarks, "Those who believe, and whose hearts find serenity in the remembrance of God: for without doubt in the remembrance of God do hearts find serenity." (Surah 13 Ra'd: 28) When serenity comes through knowledge, it is even manifested on the tongue, for language becomes devoid of abuse. The hand also stops harming, just as Adam's son refused to stretch his hand and harm his brother. Our serenity signals a commitment to reaching others through understanding and comprehension, even if the commitment is one-sided: "[He] committed them to the command of self restraint, and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it. And God has full knowledge of all things." (Surah 48 Al Fath: 26) Just as religion is about this serenity, law is the system by which taboos and duties are set. Law is inherently needed in any collectivity, and it emerges automatically when people meet. In the first days, if a person entered a cave and it was empty, s/he could sit anywhere sThe liked. But if another person was there, the already occupied place became forbidden to the new arnval. Thus, taboo, and the notion of right and duty, emerge even in simple situations. When children play, they set rules by which both sides must abide. Law by its nature requires the commitment of all sides in order to provide protection when violation occurs. When law is violated and some want to sit in the place , of others, social consciousness must be used to intervene and prevent such a breakdown. Law by its nature presupposes a deparlure from violence. Thus, those who refuse to leave violence cannot enter the world of law. Entering the world of law is voluntary and those who enter this world are subject to it equally. The dilemma of law does lies in its severity or leniency, for this imbalance can be modified with the consensus of the community or involved parties. The problem lies in the fact that people rebel against the law and thereby break the covenant and that the lawmakers apply the law to punish some while letting others get away. This is the injustice that breaks down societies. ::'''Nor was thy Lord the one to destroy villages (a population) until he had sent to its centre a messenger, rehearsing to them our signs: nor are We going to destroy villages (a population) except when its members are unjust.''' (Surah 28 A1 Qasas: 59) Law provides protection for those who come under its authority. They relinquish their sovereign right to protect themselves and surrender it to law. Living in a society entails protecting its members and arbitrating among them with justice. But when society relinquishes this protection to the individual, it regresses to the law of the jungle. There can never be law where people rely on their own individual power instead of resorting to society to resolve their conflicts. Similarly, there can never be democracy where individuals resort to their personal powers or where they have the belief that their own power is sufficient to protect them. Law is about stopping violence to solve conflicts peacefully, so where physical power rules, law disappears. And where knowledge and understanding rule, law occurs. The dividing line between lawlessness and law depends on whether authority resides in the realm of the intellect or in the realm of biceps2. "Hast thou not turned thy vision to thy Lord? How He doth prolong the shadow! If He willed, He could make it stationary! Then, We make the sun its evidence." (Surah 25 A1 Furqan: 45) In a lawful society, authority is not contingent on the body. The authoritative point of reference decides the nature of a given society; it places the society either within or without the boundaries of legitimacy and peace. Law and violence negate each other. There is no law where there is violence and there is no violence where there is law. Of course, this is a complex idea: the mechanisms of law and violence escape us the way the movement of two mobile bodies confuses us. But as I have argued, just as our misconceptions of the universe will not change any of its laws or movements, so the natural relationship between law and violence will not change just because we think violence is a vital part of our lives. Law and religion should not be founded on human whims and illusions. Nor should they be based on mere mental perceptions of the world; rather, our intellectuals should be creating a methodology using historical knowledge for weighing our perceptions, with harm and benefit to the creation as its point of reference. Historical knowledge permits us to sift through the harrn and benefit of countless human actions; "you will recognize them by their fruit3." With history, we know more about good and evil, a knowledge that will gradually deepen and consolidate. ==Footnotes== 1 Jesus describes the "intellectuals" of his age in many ways: They make up heavy loads and pile them on the shoulders of others, but will not themselves lift a finger to ease the burden. Whatever they do is done for show . . ; they love to have the place of honour at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues, to be greeted respectfully in the street, and to be addressed as "rabbi" . . . . `Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces; you do not enter yourselves, and when others try to enter you stop them. Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to win one convert; and when you have succeeded you make him twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves.' Man 23:2-15. 2 The Qur'an brings examples on how our own mental perceptions take precedence over reality. The Qur'an discusses how humans could be more lost than animals because they are not programmed with instincts the way animals are. Since humans have choice and the knowledge of good and evil, their deviation is worse than animalistic behavior, which is regulated and programmed by instinct. The Qur'an uses the sun as an example of how our own perceptions could be misleading. 3 "[T]he foam (scum) dries out like forth cast out; while that which benefits humankind remains on the earth." Surah 13 A1 Ra'd: 17. And in the Bible, we read: "You will recognize them by their fruit. Can grapes be picked from briars, or figs &om thistles? A good tree always yields sound fruit, and a poor [corrupt] tree bad [evil] fiuit." Matt 7:16-17. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 15 22 2009-04-29T13:12:04Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} The history of the world shows that the angels' accusations that humans will spill blood on earth and spread corruption have been accurate so far. Is it poss...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The history of the world shows that the angels' accusations that humans will spill blood on earth and spread corruption have been accurate so far. Is it possible for us to come out from under the angels' judgment to the light of the Lord's knowledge of us; can we accomplish this scientifically and methodologically? How can we return to the covenant of the prophets, the covenant they pledged with God to enter the world of love and compassion, the world of knowledge and eternal life and bliss? Though, it seems that our species is still fulfilling the predictions of the angels, God saw something else in the capacities He bestowed upon humanity1. The shift to the nervous system makes this possible, for instead of the demand, "I have authority because I am stronger," human beings can say, "counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength." (Prov 8:14)2 In this categorical change3, this biological evolution, ability and authority became ours. Humanity will come out of this age of illusion just as it has come through the ages of enslavement and human sacrifice, decreasing comxption by abolishing slavery and decreasing bloodshed by ending the practice of human sacrifice. It is easy to understand why it was difficult to recognize the relocation of authority from muscles, fangs and nails to human consciousness in the era of Jesus. But to see this ignorance, this illusion still dominating the modern world is amazing. Its implications are so shocking that very few wake up from the shock. I have felt this despair and disconnection for over a third of a century. But the path that recognizes the shift of authority from muscles to the nervous system is narrow: For example, the problematic status of women in the world is still connected to this inability to understand the shift to the nervous system. And so are all power relations: between adults and children, men and women, superpowers and small powers, the owners of nuclear arms and those who lack them, the possessors of veto rights and the ones to whom they are forbidden. Many other forms of corruption and bloodshed need to be urgently addressed because they have become burdensome and shameful; the institutions through which they are performed have become obsolete. As an example, it is scandalous that one-fifth of the world consumes four-fifths of the world's resources while the poorest fifth of the world population lives on less than one-fifth of tits resources. Moreover, millions die in tribal and hierarchical wars under the eyes and ears of humanity, this species that knows good and evil. This is corrupt management; and human beings turn a blind eye or even ~ nourish its continuation. They become accomplices in evil, undisturbed by the moral condemnation of their deeds for they do not understand morality as another form of economy. The violation of moral values leads to loss and sacrifice in the human economy; and we need to revise our notions of "economic" loss and gain to account for this reality. Knowledge and skills are acquired through socialization in our species. This growth was implied in God's answer to the angels, who did not believe in the possibilities for humanity. However, we must understand that this is a sacred space for action when we look at it closely and realize what it means. It is like receiving a delicate baby, a carner of possibilities that are capable of growth. We must respond to humanity with care and attention equal to that we give a small infant. We must discover the trust that has been placed in us by God, who talks about the human soul as the ultimate evolution in the cosmos. After first presenting the wonders of the sun, moon, day, night and the heavens, the Qur'an continues: "By the soul (self) and the proportion and order given to it; He inspired it as to its wrong and its right. Truly he succeeds that purifies it. And he fails that vilifies it!" (Surah 91 A1 Shams: 7-10) The perfected self sits at the top of creation. The human self has the potential to grow and go in either direction, to choose either path. The Qur'an talks about this amazing creation: ::'''We have indeed created insan (human being) in the best of moulds, Then did We abase him [to be] the lowest of the low-. Except such as believe and do righteous deeds; for they shall have a reward unfailing. '''(Surah 95 A1 Tin: 4-6) ::'''We created insan (human being) from sequences (genealogies) of clay; Then We placed him as a drop in a place of rest, firmly fixed; Then We made the drop into a clot of congealed blood; then of that clot We made a lump; then We made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh; then We evolved it into another being . . . so blessed be God, the best to create! '''(Surah 23 Al Mu'minun: 14) This is the best and ultimate creation, upon whom the administration of the earth was bestowed, and to whom the improvement of human society was handed. The human being with his/her unique nervous system is capable of transformation and change. Even evil is subject to reform. Thus, transforming humanity is a priority for all communities, who must focus on changing human content through learning the name, through teaching. The Qur'an puts it wonderfully: "Verily never will God change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves." (Surah 13 A1 Ra'd: 11) T'he Qur'an expresses a profound orientation to the natural world as God's creation, as the source of knowledge after humanity has become capable of understanding: "Say: `Behold (observe) all that is in the heavens and on earth'; but neither signs nor warners profit those who believe not."' (Surah 10 Yunus: 101) The Qur'an asks us to trace our history, its beginnings and end, causes and consequences by tracing the earth and observing what is in it. Looking into the heavens and earth is the source of knowledge. We read: "Say: `Travel through the earth and see how God did originate creation . . . "' (Surah 29 AI Ankabut: 20) We also find: "Let insan (human being) look from what he is created." (Surah 86 Al Tariq: 5) Understanding how creation started will enable humanity to claim and utilize the world (taskhir); and to differentiate good from evil, harm from benefit. Understanding creation will propel humanity into creativity and inventiveness, divine attributes worthy of the vicegerency bestowed upon us:4 "And the Lord God . . . said, `The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil . . ."' (Gen 3:22) With the gift of its mind, humanity has become a species altogether different from others, and has moved to a world outside the animal kingdom. In fact, the evolution of humanity into a thinking species enabled it to utilize other creatures in its service. For instance, after using their own muscles to labor, humans were then able to discern how to use the muscles of other species for energy, a pattern which continued for ten thousand years. Then, using the gift of the nervous system, humanity harnessed fire and steam and captured electricity for heat and light. Now we even know the secrets of the sun and stars' energy; yet, as the Qur'an foretold, the nervous system in a human being has more potential than all the energies of the suns and stars5. The angels may be excused for their accusation, for all of these achievements were made on a long path of suffering and struggle. But God knew how this species would move beyond the use of its muscles in dealing with itself and its environment to using its nervous system. The dialogue between God and the angels that captures God's vision of humanity's future is retold in part of Adam's tale in the Qur'an, the story of Adam's sons: ::'''Behold! They each presented an offering (to God); it was accepted from one, but not from the other. Said the latter: `Be sure I will kill you.' `Surely,' said the former, `God does accept from those who are righteous.' `If you do stretch your hand to kill me, I (surely) will not stretch my hand to kill you: for I fear God, the cherisher of the worlds (of all).' `I intend to let you draw on yourself my sin as well as yours, for you will be among the companions of the Fire, and that is the reward of those unjust.' The (selfsh) self of the other led him to the murder of his brother: he murdered him, and then became (himself) one of the losers. Then God sent a raven who scratched the ground to show him how to hide the shame of this brother. `Woe is me!' said he; `Was I not even able to be as this crow, to hide the shame of my brother?' Then he became [regretful] full of regrets. '''(Surah 5 A1 Ma'idah: 30-34) Whether this is a historical event or a symbolic story, what I find important in the story is the way it signifies the elevation of humanity to the level of mind, to understanding and utilization (taskhir) over the muscle. The story signifies a shift in authority, once based on violence and coercion, to a new authority based on comprehension. It signifies a voluntary choice between good and evil, and humankind's evolution from the law of the jungle to the law of understanding. Here, we see a shift toward the law of dialogue, the emergence of accountability and moral responsibility. We see the refusal to return to the previous law of violence, a glimpse of a world that humanity could surpass and a trust that humanity could abide by the new law. In the Qur'an, we are witnesses to the dialogue over the murdered son of Adam. Cain, who failed, rest~rted to killing instead of reviewing his mistakes. He told his brother, whose offering was accepted, "I will kill you." While the book of Genesis does not describe Abel's answer, the Qur'an does. Abel clearly and emphatically answers his brother's threat: "I (surely) will not stretch my hand to kill you: for I fear God . . . ." (Id.) There is no hesitation or doubt in Abel's position. He is determined and willing to face the consequences. His newly conferred responsibility is laid bare, and he uses well his newly acquired authority. Abel's response is not heretical any more than was Galileo's, though the world and the church came to believe him only after four hundred years had passed. It rather marked the evolved attitude of humanity's new life. We should stop a moment to witness the beginning of a new era that Abel founded, with his new evolutionary consciousness. Whether the story is factual or symbolic, four million years after humans stood erect, this moment is recognized in history through Socrates. His story is a similar case: one who accepted death and refused to evade or stop dialogue. We salute both Abel and Socrates for trusting humanity's evolution and refusing to regress. In doing so, they rejected return to the law of physical power. By their response to violence, they became an example and role model for the intellectual. The Qur'an recites the determination of all the prophets to share the attitude of Adam's son, to withstand harm and exercise patience in the face of the persecution inflicted upon them by their own people. They refuse to respond with harm against the harm inflicted upon them. They continue in their call and dialogue and endure the consequences. They are determined not to regress back to the way of violence, because for them, this constitutes blasphemy. As with Abel, God asks Prophet Muhammad (PBITH) to tell the world about Noah, who said to his people, ::'''O my people, if it be hard on you that I should stay (with you) and remind you of God's signs, then to God I commend my trust. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me and give me no respite. '''(Surah 10 Yunus: 71) Noah, here too, is addressing the understanding of humanity and is determined to withstand harm in this dialogue. He insists on performing his call no matter what his people do to him. He wants to address their minds with knowledge and not their bodies with physical harm. He suffers their harm while refraining from harming them back. The Qur'an tells a similar story of Shu'aib, who stands by his principles when the people of his town would drive him out6. In the dialogue, we read the response of Shu'aib and his followers, who are facing exile from their people: ::'''`We would have concocted a lie against God if we returned to your sect (religion) after God has rescued us therefrom; nor could we by any manner of means return to it . . . .' (Surah 7 Al A'raf: 89) Thus, all of the prophets say: `We would have concocted a lie against God if we returned to your sect (religion or path) . . . ' (Id. )7 ::'''And the Unbelievers said to their messengers: `Be sure we shall drive you out of our land, or you shall return to our sect (religion) . . . .' (Surah 14 Ibrahim: 13) `No reason have we why we should not put our trust in God. Indeed He has guided us to our paths. We shall certainly bear with patience the harm you may cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust in God.' '''(Id. at 12) In the unity of the prophets' determination not to enter the world of physical conflict even in persecution, we see a pacifist attitude, the decision to decline even self defense, the ability to stay patient while they are being harmed, the insistence on intellectual conflict. They insist on freedom of opinion while bearing all possible consequences. In this determination to be pacifist, freedom of opinion and belief is established from their side. Such freedom is secured by keeping the field of conflict clean and disinfected like a surgical room. This is intellectual integrity, what Abel and Socrates and the prophets practiced; by practicing one's opinion and bearing the consequences without engaging in violence, intellectual freedom is founded. ==Footnotes== 1 "Have We not made for him a pair of eyes? And a tongue, and a pair of lips? And show him the two ways (paths)." Surah 90 A1 Balad: 8-10. 2. This verse is from the King James version. 3 Initially, I began by noting that the evolution of the nervous system and the possibility of transmitting knowledge and experience through symbols created God's vicegerent on earth enables humanity to interfere in deciding its future, as the Book of Genesis tells us in the story about Adam's creation. He has eaten from the tree of knowledge. (He also wanted to eat &om the tree of life. Perhaps he will do that too and live forever.) This shift is signified in the Bible in many instances: "I am wisdom, I bestow shrewdness and show the way to knowledge and discretion." Prov 8: 12. "[Yjou will know the truth, and the truth will set you &ee." JoHn 8: 32. 4 This the vicegerency we read about in: "Behold, thy Lord said to the angels: `I will create a vicegerent on earth . . . ."' Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 30. 5 See, for example, the passage: "And He has utilized (subjected) to you, as from Him all that is in the heavens and on earth: behold, in that are signs indeed for those who retlect." Surah 45 A1 Jathiyah: 13. 6 "The leaders, the arrogant party among his people, said: `O Shu'ayb! We shall certainly drive you out of our city-and those who believe with you; or else you shall have to returo to our sect (religion).' He said: `What! Even though we do detest it."' Surah 7 Al-A'raf: 88. 7 The passage continues. This is reiterated again in the Qur'an: Has not the story reached you, of those who (went) before you?-of the People of Noah, and `Ad, and Thamud-And of those who (came) after them. None knows them but God. To them came messengers with clear signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said: `We do deny (reject) on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Their messengers said: `Is there a doubt about God, the creator of the heavens and the earth' . . . . `No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to our paths. We shall certainly bear with patience the harm you may cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.' Surah 14 Ibrahim: 9-12. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 5 93 92 2009-05-11T12:24:00Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} In the Qur'an, prophets are presented as of one mold. Their world is one, even if diversified, dispersed, and different. Indeed, the Qur'an indicates that the Prophets received one and the same call; they came with one and the same message, and their community (ummah) was one. The following Qur'anic verse suggests this view by poetically reciting certain facts repetitively: ::'''We sent Noah to his people. He said: `O my people! Worship God! You have No Other god but Him.' (Surah 7 Al A'raf: 59) To `Ad (We sent) Hud, one of their (own) brethren: He said: `Oh my people! Worship God! Ye have no other god but Him . . . .' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf : 65) To Thamud (We sent) Salih, one of their brethren: He said: `O my people! Worship God; ye have no other god but Him.' (Id. at 73) "To Madyan We sent Shu'ayb, one of their brethren; he said: `O my~eople! Worship God; Ye have no other god But Him.' (Id. at 85)1''' Although the Qur'an recreates the dia]ogue of a given prophet with his nation, it also groups al] prophets as speaking the same language¬that which constitutes the essence of their call2. The Qur'an, thus, creates a chain of prophethood3, and places the highest emphasis on the unity of this chain of prophets, their message and their community: Then, We sent our messengers in Succession: every time there came to a nation their messenger, they accused him of falsehood; so We made them follow each other, and then, We made them tales. So away with a people that will not believe. T'hen We sent Moses and his brother Aaron, with our verses (signs) and authority manifest, to Pharaoh and his Chiefs: but these behaved insolently: they were an arrogant people. They said: Shall we believe in two men like ourselves? And their people are subject to us!' So, they accused them of falsehood, and they became of those who were destroyed. And We gave Moses the Book, in order that they might be enlightened (guided). And We made the son of Mary and his mother as a sign. We gave them both Shelter on high ground, affording rest and security and fumished with springs. O you messengers! Enjoy (all) things good and work righteousness; for I am all knowing with (all) that you do. And verily this community of yours is a single community. And I am your Lord. Therefore be pious. But they [the followers] tore off their affair (of unity) between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which it has. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time. (Surah 23 Al Mu'minun: 44-54) These verses repeatedly insist on the unity of prophethood, the unity of prophetic messages, and the unity of the Prophets' community. We also learn that, once the prophets were gone, this community was fragmented and torn apart. Yet, those belonging to its various fragments are content in its fragmentation and brokenness: ::'''These are some of the stories of communities, which We relate unto you: of them some are standing and some have been mown down (by the sickle of time). ::'''It was not We who were unjust to them. They were unjust to themselves. Their deities whom they invoked profited them no wit when there issued the decree of thy Lord. Nor did they add aught (to their lot) but perdition. ::'''Such is the chastisement of you Lord when He chastised the villages (communities) in the midst of their injustice. Grievous indeed and severe is his chastisement. ::'''In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter. That is a day for which humankind will be gathered together. That will be a day of testimony. (Surah 11 Hud : 100-103) These peoples do not sense that this brokenness among themselves is evidence that they have lost what the prophets had called for: God's monotheism, the unity of their community and the unity of the content of the prophetic message4. Then the Qur'an states: "And We sent Moses, with our clear signs (verses) and an authority manifest unto Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they followed the command of Pharaoh, and the command of Pharaoh was not of guidance." (Id. at 96-97) The Qur'an, therefore, prohibits us from distinguishing or privileging one prophet above another, for all prophets are unified and share common traits. In verse after verse, the Qur'an commands that its followers believe in all prophets, for example: ::'''The Messenger believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers each believes in God, his angels, his books, and his messengers. `We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of his messengers.' And they say: `We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your forgiveness. Our Lord, and to You is all destination5.' (Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 285) ::'''Those who deny God and his messengers, and (those who) wish to separate God &om his messengers, saying: `We believe in some but reject others.' And (those who) wish to take a course midway. They are in truth (equally) unbelievers (infidels); and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment. ::'''To those who believe in God and his messengers and make no distinction between any of the messengers, We shall soon give their (due) reward: for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. (Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 150-152) 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103.<ref>Then after them We sent Moses with our signs</ref> ==Footnote== <references /> 1. In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103. In the Qur'an there is an entire chapter, (Surah) called the Surah of the Prophets (Al Anbiya') relating to the chain of prophecy. In that chapter we read: "In the past We granted to Moses and Aaron the Criterion (for judgement), and a Light and a Message for those who are pious." Surah 21 A1 Anbiya': 48. "This is a blessed message which We have sent down: will you then reject it? We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct (guidance), and well were We acquainted with Him." Id. at 50-51. "And We bestowed on him Isaac And, as an additional gift, (A grandson), Jacob, and We Made righteous of every one of them. And We made them leaders, guiding by our command, and We revealed to them to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers; And to practise regular charity; and they were our worshippers." Id at 72-73. "And Noah, when he cried aforetime; We responded to him (listened to his prayer) and delivered him and his family from great distress." ld. at 76. "And David and Solomon, when they give judgement . . . . To theirjudgement We were witness." Id. at 78. "And Job, when he cried to his Lord, `Truly distress has seized me. But Thou are the Most Merciful of those that are Merciful."' Id. at 83. "And Islmai'il, Idris, and Dhu al Kitl, all were of consta.ncy and patience." Id. at 85. "And Dhu al Nun (Jonah], when he departed in wrath; he imagined that We had no power over him. But he cried through the depths of darkness, `There is no god but You: Glory to You: I was indeed one of those who are unjust."' Id. at 87. "And Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord; `O my Lord! Leave me not without offspring, though You are the best of inheritors.' So We responded (to his prayer) And We granted him Yahya [John]: We cured his wife for him. These (three) were quick in emulation, in good wotks; they used to call on us with longing (love) and reverence, and humble themselves before Us." Id. at 89-90. "And her (Mary) who guarded her chastity; We breathed into her of our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for all worlds (people). Verily, this nation of yours is a single nation, and I am your Lord: therefore worship me. But (later generations) tore off their affairs (of unity) one from another; (yet) will they all return to Us." Id. at 91-93. These Qur'anic texts indicate that the world of prophets was one, and that they came with one call. "We sent Moses with our signs (and the command): `Bring out your people from the depths of darkness into light, and remind them of the days of God. Verily in this there are signs for such as are firmly patient and constant-grateful and appreciative. "' Surah 14 Ibrahim: 5. There is also in the same Surah: Has not the story reached you, of those who (went) before you? Of the people of Noah, and `Ad, and Thamud? And those who (came) after them? None knows them but God. To them came Messengers with clear signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said; `We do deny (the mission) on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Id. at 9. 2 . The Qur'an recites: Their messengers said: `Is there a doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed.' They said: `Ah! You are no more than human, like ourselves! You wish to turn us away from what our fathers worshiped: then bring us some clear authority (reference).' Their messengers said to them; `True, we are human like yourselves, but God does grant His grace to such of His servants as He wills. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as God permits. And on God let all believers put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.' Id at 10-12. 3 . After the story of Noah, it says: "Then, We raised after them another generation. And We sent to them (each) a messenger from among themselves, (saying), `Worship God! You have no other god but Him. Will you not fear."' Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 31-32. 4 . In Sura A1 `An'am, it is said: "Lo! Abraham said to his father Azar: `Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people in manifest error.' So did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might have certitude." Surah 6 A1 An'am: 74-75. The Qur'an follows the dialogue between Ibrahim and his nation. It, then, says: That was our reasoning (proof) about Us, which We gave to Abraham (to use) against his people. We raise whom We will, degree after degree, for your Lord is full of Wisdom and knowledge. We gave him Isaac and Jacob: all (three) We guided. And before him, We guided Noah and among his progeny, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron. T'hus do We reward those who are compassionate. And Zakariyya and John, and Jesus and Elias, all in the ranks of the Righteous. And Isma'il and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot. And all We favored above the nations. And to their fathers, and progeny and brethren, We chose them, and We guided them to a straight way. This is the Guidance of God. He gives that guidance to whom He wills of his worshippers. If they were to join other gods with Him, all that they did would be vain for them. These were to whom We gave the Book, and authority and prophethood. If these (their descendants) reject them, behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new people who will not belie them. T'hose were (the prophets) who received God's guidance. Copy the guidance they received. Say: `No reward for this do I ask of you. This is no less than a message for the worlds (people).' Id. at 83-90. The Qur'an stresses this prophetic unity and its message by saying: "Generations before you were destroyed whey they became unjust. Their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they would not believe! Thus do We requite criminal nations. Then We made you heirs in the earth (the land) after them, to see how you would behave." Surah 10 Yunus: 13-14. Then it starts with Noah: Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! he said to his people: `O my people, if it be hard on you that I should stay (with you) and remind you of God's signs, then to God I commend my trust. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me and give me no respite.' Id. at 71. We see here how Noah subjects himself to rule of law of his society. Then after him, We sent (many) messengers to their peoples: they brought them clear signs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected beforehand. Thus do We seal the hearts of the transgressors. Then after them sent We Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his chiefs with our signs. But they we were arrogant. They were a people in crime. Id. at 74-75. In Surah Houd, the Qur'an tells the story of Noah with detail, similar to what we have seen above. Then it mentions, in the same fashion as we saw in Surah A1 A'raf, the story of the prophets and how they asked of their people to worship God because they have no god but Him. We also read more about Moses and Pharaoh here. 5 The Qur'an recites, Say you: `We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them. And to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' So if they believe as you believe, they are indeed guided, and if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but God will suffice thee as against them, and He is the all-hearing, the all knowing. Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 136-137. There is also: Say: `We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il; Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another among them and to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 84. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 92 13 2009-05-11T12:23:00Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} In the Qur'an, prophets are presented as of one mold. Their world is one, even if diversified, dispersed, and different. Indeed, the Qur'an indicates that the Prophets received one and the same call; they came with one and the same message, and their community (ummah) was one. The following Qur'anic verse suggests this view by poetically reciting certain facts repetitively: ::'''We sent Noah to his people. He said: `O my people! Worship God! You have No Other god but Him.' (Surah 7 Al A'raf: 59) To `Ad (We sent) Hud, one of their (own) brethren: He said: `Oh my people! Worship God! Ye have no other god but Him . . . .' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf : 65) To Thamud (We sent) Salih, one of their brethren: He said: `O my people! Worship God; ye have no other god but Him.' (Id. at 73) "To Madyan We sent Shu'ayb, one of their brethren; he said: `O my~eople! Worship God; Ye have no other god But Him.' (Id. at 85)1''' Although the Qur'an recreates the dia]ogue of a given prophet with his nation, it also groups al] prophets as speaking the same language¬that which constitutes the essence of their call2. The Qur'an, thus, creates a chain of prophethood3, and places the highest emphasis on the unity of this chain of prophets, their message and their community: Then, We sent our messengers in Succession: every time there came to a nation their messenger, they accused him of falsehood; so We made them follow each other, and then, We made them tales. So away with a people that will not believe. T'hen We sent Moses and his brother Aaron, with our verses (signs) and authority manifest, to Pharaoh and his Chiefs: but these behaved insolently: they were an arrogant people. They said: Shall we believe in two men like ourselves? And their people are subject to us!' So, they accused them of falsehood, and they became of those who were destroyed. And We gave Moses the Book, in order that they might be enlightened (guided). And We made the son of Mary and his mother as a sign. We gave them both Shelter on high ground, affording rest and security and fumished with springs. O you messengers! Enjoy (all) things good and work righteousness; for I am all knowing with (all) that you do. And verily this community of yours is a single community. And I am your Lord. Therefore be pious. But they [the followers] tore off their affair (of unity) between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which it has. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time. (Surah 23 Al Mu'minun: 44-54) These verses repeatedly insist on the unity of prophethood, the unity of prophetic messages, and the unity of the Prophets' community. We also learn that, once the prophets were gone, this community was fragmented and torn apart. Yet, those belonging to its various fragments are content in its fragmentation and brokenness: ::'''These are some of the stories of communities, which We relate unto you: of them some are standing and some have been mown down (by the sickle of time). ::'''It was not We who were unjust to them. They were unjust to themselves. Their deities whom they invoked profited them no wit when there issued the decree of thy Lord. Nor did they add aught (to their lot) but perdition. ::'''Such is the chastisement of you Lord when He chastised the villages (communities) in the midst of their injustice. Grievous indeed and severe is his chastisement. ::'''In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter. That is a day for which humankind will be gathered together. That will be a day of testimony. (Surah 11 Hud : 100-103) These peoples do not sense that this brokenness among themselves is evidence that they have lost what the prophets had called for: God's monotheism, the unity of their community and the unity of the content of the prophetic message4. Then the Qur'an states: "And We sent Moses, with our clear signs (verses) and an authority manifest unto Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they followed the command of Pharaoh, and the command of Pharaoh was not of guidance." (Id. at 96-97) The Qur'an, therefore, prohibits us from distinguishing or privileging one prophet above another, for all prophets are unified and share common traits. In verse after verse, the Qur'an commands that its followers believe in all prophets, for example: ::'''The Messenger believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers each believes in God, his angels, his books, and his messengers. `We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of his messengers.' And they say: `We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your forgiveness. Our Lord, and to You is all destination5.' (Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 285) ::'''Those who deny God and his messengers, and (those who) wish to separate God &om his messengers, saying: `We believe in some but reject others.' And (those who) wish to take a course midway. They are in truth (equally) unbelievers (infidels); and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment. ::'''To those who believe in God and his messengers and make no distinction between any of the messengers, We shall soon give their (due) reward: for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. (Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 150-152) 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103.<ref>Then after them We sent Moses with our signs</ref> ==Footnote== <references /> In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103. In the Qur'an there is an entire chapter, (Surah) called the Surah of the Prophets (Al Anbiya') relating to the chain of prophecy. In that chapter we read: "In the past We granted to Moses and Aaron the Criterion (for judgement), and a Light and a Message for those who are pious." Surah 21 A1 Anbiya': 48. "This is a blessed message which We have sent down: will you then reject it? We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct (guidance), and well were We acquainted with Him." Id. at 50-51. "And We bestowed on him Isaac And, as an additional gift, (A grandson), Jacob, and We Made righteous of every one of them. And We made them leaders, guiding by our command, and We revealed to them to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers; And to practise regular charity; and they were our worshippers." Id at 72-73. "And Noah, when he cried aforetime; We responded to him (listened to his prayer) and delivered him and his family from great distress." ld. at 76. "And David and Solomon, when they give judgement . . . . To theirjudgement We were witness." Id. at 78. "And Job, when he cried to his Lord, `Truly distress has seized me. But Thou are the Most Merciful of those that are Merciful."' Id. at 83. "And Islmai'il, Idris, and Dhu al Kitl, all were of consta.ncy and patience." Id. at 85. "And Dhu al Nun (Jonah], when he departed in wrath; he imagined that We had no power over him. But he cried through the depths of darkness, `There is no god but You: Glory to You: I was indeed one of those who are unjust."' Id. at 87. "And Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord; `O my Lord! Leave me not without offspring, though You are the best of inheritors.' So We responded (to his prayer) And We granted him Yahya [John]: We cured his wife for him. These (three) were quick in emulation, in good wotks; they used to call on us with longing (love) and reverence, and humble themselves before Us." Id. at 89-90. "And her (Mary) who guarded her chastity; We breathed into her of our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for all worlds (people). Verily, this nation of yours is a single nation, and I am your Lord: therefore worship me. But (later generations) tore off their affairs (of unity) one from another; (yet) will they all return to Us." Id. at 91-93. These Qur'anic texts indicate that the world of prophets was one, and that they came with one call. "We sent Moses with our signs (and the command): `Bring out your people from the depths of darkness into light, and remind them of the days of God. Verily in this there are signs for such as are firmly patient and constant-grateful and appreciative. "' Surah 14 Ibrahim: 5. There is also in the same Surah: Has not the story reached you, of those who (went) before you? Of the people of Noah, and `Ad, and Thamud? And those who (came) after them? None knows them but God. To them came Messengers with clear signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said; `We do deny (the mission) on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Id. at 9. 2 . The Qur'an recites: Their messengers said: `Is there a doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed.' They said: `Ah! You are no more than human, like ourselves! You wish to turn us away from what our fathers worshiped: then bring us some clear authority (reference).' Their messengers said to them; `True, we are human like yourselves, but God does grant His grace to such of His servants as He wills. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as God permits. And on God let all believers put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.' Id at 10-12. 3 . After the story of Noah, it says: "Then, We raised after them another generation. And We sent to them (each) a messenger from among themselves, (saying), `Worship God! You have no other god but Him. Will you not fear."' Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 31-32. 4 . In Sura A1 `An'am, it is said: "Lo! Abraham said to his father Azar: `Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people in manifest error.' So did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might have certitude." Surah 6 A1 An'am: 74-75. The Qur'an follows the dialogue between Ibrahim and his nation. It, then, says: That was our reasoning (proof) about Us, which We gave to Abraham (to use) against his people. We raise whom We will, degree after degree, for your Lord is full of Wisdom and knowledge. We gave him Isaac and Jacob: all (three) We guided. And before him, We guided Noah and among his progeny, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron. T'hus do We reward those who are compassionate. And Zakariyya and John, and Jesus and Elias, all in the ranks of the Righteous. And Isma'il and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot. And all We favored above the nations. And to their fathers, and progeny and brethren, We chose them, and We guided them to a straight way. This is the Guidance of God. He gives that guidance to whom He wills of his worshippers. If they were to join other gods with Him, all that they did would be vain for them. These were to whom We gave the Book, and authority and prophethood. If these (their descendants) reject them, behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new people who will not belie them. T'hose were (the prophets) who received God's guidance. Copy the guidance they received. Say: `No reward for this do I ask of you. This is no less than a message for the worlds (people).' Id. at 83-90. The Qur'an stresses this prophetic unity and its message by saying: "Generations before you were destroyed whey they became unjust. Their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they would not believe! Thus do We requite criminal nations. Then We made you heirs in the earth (the land) after them, to see how you would behave." Surah 10 Yunus: 13-14. Then it starts with Noah: Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! he said to his people: `O my people, if it be hard on you that I should stay (with you) and remind you of God's signs, then to God I commend my trust. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me and give me no respite.' Id. at 71. We see here how Noah subjects himself to rule of law of his society. Then after him, We sent (many) messengers to their peoples: they brought them clear signs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected beforehand. Thus do We seal the hearts of the transgressors. Then after them sent We Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his chiefs with our signs. But they we were arrogant. They were a people in crime. Id. at 74-75. In Surah Houd, the Qur'an tells the story of Noah with detail, similar to what we have seen above. Then it mentions, in the same fashion as we saw in Surah A1 A'raf, the story of the prophets and how they asked of their people to worship God because they have no god but Him. We also read more about Moses and Pharaoh here. 5 The Qur'an recites, Say you: `We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them. And to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' So if they believe as you believe, they are indeed guided, and if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but God will suffice thee as against them, and He is the all-hearing, the all knowing. Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 136-137. There is also: Say: `We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il; Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another among them and to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 84. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 13 11 2009-04-29T11:19:21Z Admin 1 /* Footnote */ wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} In the Qur'an, prophets are presented as of one mold. Their world is one, even if diversified, dispersed, and different. Indeed, the Qur'an indicates that the Prophets received one and the same call; they came with one and the same message, and their community (ummah) was one. The following Qur'anic verse suggests this view by poetically reciting certain facts repetitively: ::'''We sent Noah to his people. He said: `O my people! Worship God! You have No Other god but Him.' (Surah 7 Al A'raf: 59) To `Ad (We sent) Hud, one of their (own) brethren: He said: `Oh my people! Worship God! Ye have no other god but Him . . . .' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf : 65) To Thamud (We sent) Salih, one of their brethren: He said: `O my people! Worship God; ye have no other god but Him.' (Id. at 73) "To Madyan We sent Shu'ayb, one of their brethren; he said: `O my~eople! Worship God; Ye have no other god But Him.' (Id. at 85)1''' Although the Qur'an recreates the dia]ogue of a given prophet with his nation, it also groups al] prophets as speaking the same language¬that which constitutes the essence of their call2. The Qur'an, thus, creates a chain of prophethood3, and places the highest emphasis on the unity of this chain of prophets, their message and their community: Then, We sent our messengers in Succession: every time there came to a nation their messenger, they accused him of falsehood; so We made them follow each other, and then, We made them tales. So away with a people that will not believe. T'hen We sent Moses and his brother Aaron, with our verses (signs) and authority manifest, to Pharaoh and his Chiefs: but these behaved insolently: they were an arrogant people. They said: Shall we believe in two men like ourselves? And their people are subject to us!' So, they accused them of falsehood, and they became of those who were destroyed. And We gave Moses the Book, in order that they might be enlightened (guided). And We made the son of Mary and his mother as a sign. We gave them both Shelter on high ground, affording rest and security and fumished with springs. O you messengers! Enjoy (all) things good and work righteousness; for I am all knowing with (all) that you do. And verily this community of yours is a single community. And I am your Lord. Therefore be pious. But they [the followers] tore off their affair (of unity) between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which it has. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time. (Surah 23 Al Mu'minun: 44-54) These verses repeatedly insist on the unity of prophethood, the unity of prophetic messages, and the unity of the Prophets' community. We also learn that, once the prophets were gone, this community was fragmented and torn apart. Yet, those belonging to its various fragments are content in its fragmentation and brokenness: ::'''These are some of the stories of communities, which We relate unto you: of them some are standing and some have been mown down (by the sickle of time). ::'''It was not We who were unjust to them. They were unjust to themselves. Their deities whom they invoked profited them no wit when there issued the decree of thy Lord. Nor did they add aught (to their lot) but perdition. ::'''Such is the chastisement of you Lord when He chastised the villages (communities) in the midst of their injustice. Grievous indeed and severe is his chastisement. ::'''In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter. That is a day for which humankind will be gathered together. That will be a day of testimony. (Surah 11 Hud : 100-103) These peoples do not sense that this brokenness among themselves is evidence that they have lost what the prophets had called for: God's monotheism, the unity of their community and the unity of the content of the prophetic message4. Then the Qur'an states: "And We sent Moses, with our clear signs (verses) and an authority manifest unto Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they followed the command of Pharaoh, and the command of Pharaoh was not of guidance." (Id. at 96-97) The Qur'an, therefore, prohibits us from distinguishing or privileging one prophet above another, for all prophets are unified and share common traits. In verse after verse, the Qur'an commands that its followers believe in all prophets, for example: ::'''The Messenger believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers each believes in God, his angels, his books, and his messengers. `We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of his messengers.' And they say: `We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your forgiveness. Our Lord, and to You is all destination5.' (Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 285) ::'''Those who deny God and his messengers, and (those who) wish to separate God &om his messengers, saying: `We believe in some but reject others.' And (those who) wish to take a course midway. They are in truth (equally) unbelievers (infidels); and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment. ::'''To those who believe in God and his messengers and make no distinction between any of the messengers, We shall soon give their (due) reward: for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. (Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 150-152) 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103.<ref>hen after them We sen5678t Moses with our signs</ref> ==Footnote== 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103. In the Qur'an there is an entire chapter, (Surah) called the Surah of the Prophets (Al Anbiya') relating to the chain of prophecy. In that chapter we read: "In the past We granted to Moses and Aaron the Criterion (for judgement), and a Light and a Message for those who are pious." Surah 21 A1 Anbiya': 48. "This is a blessed message which We have sent down: will you then reject it? We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct (guidance), and well were We acquainted with Him." Id. at 50-51. "And We bestowed on him Isaac And, as an additional gift, (A grandson), Jacob, and We Made righteous of every one of them. And We made them leaders, guiding by our command, and We revealed to them to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers; And to practise regular charity; and they were our worshippers." Id at 72-73. "And Noah, when he cried aforetime; We responded to him (listened to his prayer) and delivered him and his family from great distress." ld. at 76. "And David and Solomon, when they give judgement . . . . To theirjudgement We were witness." Id. at 78. "And Job, when he cried to his Lord, `Truly distress has seized me. But Thou are the Most Merciful of those that are Merciful."' Id. at 83. "And Islmai'il, Idris, and Dhu al Kitl, all were of consta.ncy and patience." Id. at 85. "And Dhu al Nun (Jonah], when he departed in wrath; he imagined that We had no power over him. But he cried through the depths of darkness, `There is no god but You: Glory to You: I was indeed one of those who are unjust."' Id. at 87. "And Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord; `O my Lord! Leave me not without offspring, though You are the best of inheritors.' So We responded (to his prayer) And We granted him Yahya [John]: We cured his wife for him. These (three) were quick in emulation, in good wotks; they used to call on us with longing (love) and reverence, and humble themselves before Us." Id. at 89-90. "And her (Mary) who guarded her chastity; We breathed into her of our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for all worlds (people). Verily, this nation of yours is a single nation, and I am your Lord: therefore worship me. But (later generations) tore off their affairs (of unity) one from another; (yet) will they all return to Us." Id. at 91-93. These Qur'anic texts indicate that the world of prophets was one, and that they came with one call. "We sent Moses with our signs (and the command): `Bring out your people from the depths of darkness into light, and remind them of the days of God. Verily in this there are signs for such as are firmly patient and constant-grateful and appreciative. "' Surah 14 Ibrahim: 5. There is also in the same Surah: Has not the story reached you, of those who (went) before you? Of the people of Noah, and `Ad, and Thamud? And those who (came) after them? None knows them but God. To them came Messengers with clear signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said; `We do deny (the mission) on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Id. at 9. 2 . The Qur'an recites: Their messengers said: `Is there a doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed.' They said: `Ah! You are no more than human, like ourselves! You wish to turn us away from what our fathers worshiped: then bring us some clear authority (reference).' Their messengers said to them; `True, we are human like yourselves, but God does grant His grace to such of His servants as He wills. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as God permits. And on God let all believers put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.' Id at 10-12. 3 . After the story of Noah, it says: "Then, We raised after them another generation. And We sent to them (each) a messenger from among themselves, (saying), `Worship God! You have no other god but Him. Will you not fear."' Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 31-32. 4 . In Sura A1 `An'am, it is said: "Lo! Abraham said to his father Azar: `Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people in manifest error.' So did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might have certitude." Surah 6 A1 An'am: 74-75. The Qur'an follows the dialogue between Ibrahim and his nation. It, then, says: That was our reasoning (proof) about Us, which We gave to Abraham (to use) against his people. We raise whom We will, degree after degree, for your Lord is full of Wisdom and knowledge. We gave him Isaac and Jacob: all (three) We guided. And before him, We guided Noah and among his progeny, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron. T'hus do We reward those who are compassionate. And Zakariyya and John, and Jesus and Elias, all in the ranks of the Righteous. And Isma'il and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot. And all We favored above the nations. And to their fathers, and progeny and brethren, We chose them, and We guided them to a straight way. This is the Guidance of God. He gives that guidance to whom He wills of his worshippers. If they were to join other gods with Him, all that they did would be vain for them. These were to whom We gave the Book, and authority and prophethood. If these (their descendants) reject them, behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new people who will not belie them. T'hose were (the prophets) who received God's guidance. Copy the guidance they received. Say: `No reward for this do I ask of you. This is no less than a message for the worlds (people).' Id. at 83-90. The Qur'an stresses this prophetic unity and its message by saying: "Generations before you were destroyed whey they became unjust. Their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they would not believe! Thus do We requite criminal nations. Then We made you heirs in the earth (the land) after them, to see how you would behave." Surah 10 Yunus: 13-14. Then it starts with Noah: Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! he said to his people: `O my people, if it be hard on you that I should stay (with you) and remind you of God's signs, then to God I commend my trust. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me and give me no respite.' Id. at 71. We see here how Noah subjects himself to rule of law of his society. Then after him, We sent (many) messengers to their peoples: they brought them clear signs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected beforehand. Thus do We seal the hearts of the transgressors. Then after them sent We Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his chiefs with our signs. But they we were arrogant. They were a people in crime. Id. at 74-75. In Surah Houd, the Qur'an tells the story of Noah with detail, similar to what we have seen above. Then it mentions, in the same fashion as we saw in Surah A1 A'raf, the story of the prophets and how they asked of their people to worship God because they have no god but Him. We also read more about Moses and Pharaoh here. 5 The Qur'an recites, Say you: `We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them. And to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' So if they believe as you believe, they are indeed guided, and if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but God will suffice thee as against them, and He is the all-hearing, the all knowing. Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 136-137. There is also: Say: `We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il; Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another among them and to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 84. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 11 10 2009-04-29T11:02:14Z Admin 1 /* Footnote */ wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} In the Qur'an, prophets are presented as of one mold. Their world is one, even if diversified, dispersed, and different. Indeed, the Qur'an indicates that the Prophets received one and the same call; they came with one and the same message, and their community (ummah) was one. The following Qur'anic verse suggests this view by poetically reciting certain facts repetitively: ::'''We sent Noah to his people. He said: `O my people! Worship God! You have No Other god but Him.' (Surah 7 Al A'raf: 59) To `Ad (We sent) Hud, one of their (own) brethren: He said: `Oh my people! Worship God! Ye have no other god but Him . . . .' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf : 65) To Thamud (We sent) Salih, one of their brethren: He said: `O my people! Worship God; ye have no other god but Him.' (Id. at 73) "To Madyan We sent Shu'ayb, one of their brethren; he said: `O my~eople! Worship God; Ye have no other god But Him.' (Id. at 85)1''' Although the Qur'an recreates the dia]ogue of a given prophet with his nation, it also groups al] prophets as speaking the same language¬that which constitutes the essence of their call2. The Qur'an, thus, creates a chain of prophethood3, and places the highest emphasis on the unity of this chain of prophets, their message and their community: Then, We sent our messengers in Succession: every time there came to a nation their messenger, they accused him of falsehood; so We made them follow each other, and then, We made them tales. So away with a people that will not believe. T'hen We sent Moses and his brother Aaron, with our verses (signs) and authority manifest, to Pharaoh and his Chiefs: but these behaved insolently: they were an arrogant people. They said: Shall we believe in two men like ourselves? And their people are subject to us!' So, they accused them of falsehood, and they became of those who were destroyed. And We gave Moses the Book, in order that they might be enlightened (guided). And We made the son of Mary and his mother as a sign. We gave them both Shelter on high ground, affording rest and security and fumished with springs. O you messengers! Enjoy (all) things good and work righteousness; for I am all knowing with (all) that you do. And verily this community of yours is a single community. And I am your Lord. Therefore be pious. But they [the followers] tore off their affair (of unity) between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which it has. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time. (Surah 23 Al Mu'minun: 44-54) These verses repeatedly insist on the unity of prophethood, the unity of prophetic messages, and the unity of the Prophets' community. We also learn that, once the prophets were gone, this community was fragmented and torn apart. Yet, those belonging to its various fragments are content in its fragmentation and brokenness: ::'''These are some of the stories of communities, which We relate unto you: of them some are standing and some have been mown down (by the sickle of time). ::'''It was not We who were unjust to them. They were unjust to themselves. Their deities whom they invoked profited them no wit when there issued the decree of thy Lord. Nor did they add aught (to their lot) but perdition. ::'''Such is the chastisement of you Lord when He chastised the villages (communities) in the midst of their injustice. Grievous indeed and severe is his chastisement. ::'''In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter. That is a day for which humankind will be gathered together. That will be a day of testimony. (Surah 11 Hud : 100-103) These peoples do not sense that this brokenness among themselves is evidence that they have lost what the prophets had called for: God's monotheism, the unity of their community and the unity of the content of the prophetic message4. Then the Qur'an states: "And We sent Moses, with our clear signs (verses) and an authority manifest unto Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they followed the command of Pharaoh, and the command of Pharaoh was not of guidance." (Id. at 96-97) The Qur'an, therefore, prohibits us from distinguishing or privileging one prophet above another, for all prophets are unified and share common traits. In verse after verse, the Qur'an commands that its followers believe in all prophets, for example: ::'''The Messenger believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers each believes in God, his angels, his books, and his messengers. `We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of his messengers.' And they say: `We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your forgiveness. Our Lord, and to You is all destination5.' (Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 285) ::'''Those who deny God and his messengers, and (those who) wish to separate God &om his messengers, saying: `We believe in some but reject others.' And (those who) wish to take a course midway. They are in truth (equally) unbelievers (infidels); and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment. ::'''To those who believe in God and his messengers and make no distinction between any of the messengers, We shall soon give their (due) reward: for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. (Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 150-152) 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103.<ref>hen after them We sen5678t Moses with our signs</ref> ==Footnote== {{reflist}} 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103. In the Qur'an there is an entire chapter, (Surah) called the Surah of the Prophets (Al Anbiya') relating to the chain of prophecy. In that chapter we read: "In the past We granted to Moses and Aaron the Criterion (for judgement), and a Light and a Message for those who are pious." Surah 21 A1 Anbiya': 48. "This is a blessed message which We have sent down: will you then reject it? We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct (guidance), and well were We acquainted with Him." Id. at 50-51. "And We bestowed on him Isaac And, as an additional gift, (A grandson), Jacob, and We Made righteous of every one of them. And We made them leaders, guiding by our command, and We revealed to them to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers; And to practise regular charity; and they were our worshippers." Id at 72-73. "And Noah, when he cried aforetime; We responded to him (listened to his prayer) and delivered him and his family from great distress." ld. at 76. "And David and Solomon, when they give judgement . . . . To theirjudgement We were witness." Id. at 78. "And Job, when he cried to his Lord, `Truly distress has seized me. But Thou are the Most Merciful of those that are Merciful."' Id. at 83. "And Islmai'il, Idris, and Dhu al Kitl, all were of consta.ncy and patience." Id. at 85. "And Dhu al Nun (Jonah], when he departed in wrath; he imagined that We had no power over him. But he cried through the depths of darkness, `There is no god but You: Glory to You: I was indeed one of those who are unjust."' Id. at 87. "And Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord; `O my Lord! Leave me not without offspring, though You are the best of inheritors.' So We responded (to his prayer) And We granted him Yahya [John]: We cured his wife for him. These (three) were quick in emulation, in good wotks; they used to call on us with longing (love) and reverence, and humble themselves before Us." Id. at 89-90. "And her (Mary) who guarded her chastity; We breathed into her of our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for all worlds (people). Verily, this nation of yours is a single nation, and I am your Lord: therefore worship me. But (later generations) tore off their affairs (of unity) one from another; (yet) will they all return to Us." Id. at 91-93. These Qur'anic texts indicate that the world of prophets was one, and that they came with one call. "We sent Moses with our signs (and the command): `Bring out your people from the depths of darkness into light, and remind them of the days of God. Verily in this there are signs for such as are firmly patient and constant-grateful and appreciative. "' Surah 14 Ibrahim: 5. There is also in the same Surah: Has not the story reached you, of those who (went) before you? Of the people of Noah, and `Ad, and Thamud? And those who (came) after them? None knows them but God. To them came Messengers with clear signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said; `We do deny (the mission) on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Id. at 9. 2 . The Qur'an recites: Their messengers said: `Is there a doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed.' They said: `Ah! You are no more than human, like ourselves! You wish to turn us away from what our fathers worshiped: then bring us some clear authority (reference).' Their messengers said to them; `True, we are human like yourselves, but God does grant His grace to such of His servants as He wills. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as God permits. And on God let all believers put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.' Id at 10-12. 3 . After the story of Noah, it says: "Then, We raised after them another generation. And We sent to them (each) a messenger from among themselves, (saying), `Worship God! You have no other god but Him. Will you not fear."' Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 31-32. 4 . In Sura A1 `An'am, it is said: "Lo! Abraham said to his father Azar: `Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people in manifest error.' So did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might have certitude." Surah 6 A1 An'am: 74-75. The Qur'an follows the dialogue between Ibrahim and his nation. It, then, says: That was our reasoning (proof) about Us, which We gave to Abraham (to use) against his people. We raise whom We will, degree after degree, for your Lord is full of Wisdom and knowledge. We gave him Isaac and Jacob: all (three) We guided. And before him, We guided Noah and among his progeny, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron. T'hus do We reward those who are compassionate. And Zakariyya and John, and Jesus and Elias, all in the ranks of the Righteous. And Isma'il and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot. And all We favored above the nations. And to their fathers, and progeny and brethren, We chose them, and We guided them to a straight way. This is the Guidance of God. He gives that guidance to whom He wills of his worshippers. If they were to join other gods with Him, all that they did would be vain for them. These were to whom We gave the Book, and authority and prophethood. If these (their descendants) reject them, behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new people who will not belie them. T'hose were (the prophets) who received God's guidance. Copy the guidance they received. Say: `No reward for this do I ask of you. This is no less than a message for the worlds (people).' Id. at 83-90. The Qur'an stresses this prophetic unity and its message by saying: "Generations before you were destroyed whey they became unjust. Their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they would not believe! Thus do We requite criminal nations. Then We made you heirs in the earth (the land) after them, to see how you would behave." Surah 10 Yunus: 13-14. Then it starts with Noah: Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! he said to his people: `O my people, if it be hard on you that I should stay (with you) and remind you of God's signs, then to God I commend my trust. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me and give me no respite.' Id. at 71. We see here how Noah subjects himself to rule of law of his society. Then after him, We sent (many) messengers to their peoples: they brought them clear signs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected beforehand. Thus do We seal the hearts of the transgressors. Then after them sent We Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his chiefs with our signs. But they we were arrogant. They were a people in crime. Id. at 74-75. In Surah Houd, the Qur'an tells the story of Noah with detail, similar to what we have seen above. Then it mentions, in the same fashion as we saw in Surah A1 A'raf, the story of the prophets and how they asked of their people to worship God because they have no god but Him. We also read more about Moses and Pharaoh here. 5 The Qur'an recites, Say you: `We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them. And to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' So if they believe as you believe, they are indeed guided, and if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but God will suffice thee as against them, and He is the all-hearing, the all knowing. Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 136-137. There is also: Say: `We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il; Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another among them and to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 84. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 10 2009-04-29T10:03:08Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} In the Qur'an, prophets are presented as of one mold. Their world is one, even if diversified, dispersed, and different. Indeed, the Qur'an indicates that...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} In the Qur'an, prophets are presented as of one mold. Their world is one, even if diversified, dispersed, and different. Indeed, the Qur'an indicates that the Prophets received one and the same call; they came with one and the same message, and their community (ummah) was one. The following Qur'anic verse suggests this view by poetically reciting certain facts repetitively: ::'''We sent Noah to his people. He said: `O my people! Worship God! You have No Other god but Him.' (Surah 7 Al A'raf: 59) To `Ad (We sent) Hud, one of their (own) brethren: He said: `Oh my people! Worship God! Ye have no other god but Him . . . .' (Surah 7 A1 A'raf : 65) To Thamud (We sent) Salih, one of their brethren: He said: `O my people! Worship God; ye have no other god but Him.' (Id. at 73) "To Madyan We sent Shu'ayb, one of their brethren; he said: `O my~eople! Worship God; Ye have no other god But Him.' (Id. at 85)1''' Although the Qur'an recreates the dia]ogue of a given prophet with his nation, it also groups al] prophets as speaking the same language¬that which constitutes the essence of their call2. The Qur'an, thus, creates a chain of prophethood3, and places the highest emphasis on the unity of this chain of prophets, their message and their community: Then, We sent our messengers in Succession: every time there came to a nation their messenger, they accused him of falsehood; so We made them follow each other, and then, We made them tales. So away with a people that will not believe. T'hen We sent Moses and his brother Aaron, with our verses (signs) and authority manifest, to Pharaoh and his Chiefs: but these behaved insolently: they were an arrogant people. They said: Shall we believe in two men like ourselves? And their people are subject to us!' So, they accused them of falsehood, and they became of those who were destroyed. And We gave Moses the Book, in order that they might be enlightened (guided). And We made the son of Mary and his mother as a sign. We gave them both Shelter on high ground, affording rest and security and fumished with springs. O you messengers! Enjoy (all) things good and work righteousness; for I am all knowing with (all) that you do. And verily this community of yours is a single community. And I am your Lord. Therefore be pious. But they [the followers] tore off their affair (of unity) between them, into sects: each party rejoices in that which it has. But leave them in their confused ignorance for a time. (Surah 23 Al Mu'minun: 44-54) These verses repeatedly insist on the unity of prophethood, the unity of prophetic messages, and the unity of the Prophets' community. We also learn that, once the prophets were gone, this community was fragmented and torn apart. Yet, those belonging to its various fragments are content in its fragmentation and brokenness: ::'''These are some of the stories of communities, which We relate unto you: of them some are standing and some have been mown down (by the sickle of time). ::'''It was not We who were unjust to them. They were unjust to themselves. Their deities whom they invoked profited them no wit when there issued the decree of thy Lord. Nor did they add aught (to their lot) but perdition. ::'''Such is the chastisement of you Lord when He chastised the villages (communities) in the midst of their injustice. Grievous indeed and severe is his chastisement. ::'''In that is a sign for those who fear the penalty of the hereafter. That is a day for which humankind will be gathered together. That will be a day of testimony. (Surah 11 Hud : 100-103) These peoples do not sense that this brokenness among themselves is evidence that they have lost what the prophets had called for: God's monotheism, the unity of their community and the unity of the content of the prophetic message4. Then the Qur'an states: "And We sent Moses, with our clear signs (verses) and an authority manifest unto Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they followed the command of Pharaoh, and the command of Pharaoh was not of guidance." (Id. at 96-97) The Qur'an, therefore, prohibits us from distinguishing or privileging one prophet above another, for all prophets are unified and share common traits. In verse after verse, the Qur'an commands that its followers believe in all prophets, for example: ::'''The Messenger believed in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the believers each believes in God, his angels, his books, and his messengers. `We make no distinction (they say) between one and another of his messengers.' And they say: `We hear, and we obey. (We seek) Your forgiveness. Our Lord, and to You is all destination5.' (Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 285) ::'''Those who deny God and his messengers, and (those who) wish to separate God &om his messengers, saying: `We believe in some but reject others.' And (those who) wish to take a course midway. They are in truth (equally) unbelievers (infidels); and we have prepared for unbelievers a humiliating punishment. ::'''To those who believe in God and his messengers and make no distinction between any of the messengers, We shall soon give their (due) reward: for God is oft-forgiving, most merciful. (Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 150-152) ==Footnote== 1 . In the same Surah we read: "Such were the towns whose story We (thus) relate unto you: There came indeed to them their messengers with clear signs. But they would not believe what they had rejected before . . . ." Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 101. "Then after them We sent Moses with our signs To Pharaoh and his chiefs. But they wrongfully rejected them: So see what was the end of those who made mischief." Id. at 103. In the Qur'an there is an entire chapter, (Surah) called the Surah of the Prophets (Al Anbiya') relating to the chain of prophecy. In that chapter we read: "In the past We granted to Moses and Aaron the Criterion (for judgement), and a Light and a Message for those who are pious." Surah 21 A1 Anbiya': 48. "This is a blessed message which We have sent down: will you then reject it? We bestowed aforetime on Abraham his rectitude of conduct (guidance), and well were We acquainted with Him." Id. at 50-51. "And We bestowed on him Isaac And, as an additional gift, (A grandson), Jacob, and We Made righteous of every one of them. And We made them leaders, guiding by our command, and We revealed to them to do good deeds, to establish regular prayers; And to practise regular charity; and they were our worshippers." Id at 72-73. "And Noah, when he cried aforetime; We responded to him (listened to his prayer) and delivered him and his family from great distress." ld. at 76. "And David and Solomon, when they give judgement . . . . To theirjudgement We were witness." Id. at 78. "And Job, when he cried to his Lord, `Truly distress has seized me. But Thou are the Most Merciful of those that are Merciful."' Id. at 83. "And Islmai'il, Idris, and Dhu al Kitl, all were of consta.ncy and patience." Id. at 85. "And Dhu al Nun (Jonah], when he departed in wrath; he imagined that We had no power over him. But he cried through the depths of darkness, `There is no god but You: Glory to You: I was indeed one of those who are unjust."' Id. at 87. "And Zakariya, when he cried to his Lord; `O my Lord! Leave me not without offspring, though You are the best of inheritors.' So We responded (to his prayer) And We granted him Yahya [John]: We cured his wife for him. These (three) were quick in emulation, in good wotks; they used to call on us with longing (love) and reverence, and humble themselves before Us." Id. at 89-90. "And her (Mary) who guarded her chastity; We breathed into her of our Spirit, and We made her and her son a sign for all worlds (people). Verily, this nation of yours is a single nation, and I am your Lord: therefore worship me. But (later generations) tore off their affairs (of unity) one from another; (yet) will they all return to Us." Id. at 91-93. These Qur'anic texts indicate that the world of prophets was one, and that they came with one call. "We sent Moses with our signs (and the command): `Bring out your people from the depths of darkness into light, and remind them of the days of God. Verily in this there are signs for such as are firmly patient and constant-grateful and appreciative. "' Surah 14 Ibrahim: 5. There is also in the same Surah: Has not the story reached you, of those who (went) before you? Of the people of Noah, and `Ad, and Thamud? And those who (came) after them? None knows them but God. To them came Messengers with clear signs; but they put their hands up to their mouths, and said; `We do deny (the mission) on which you have been sent, and we are really in suspicious doubt as to that to which you invite us.' Id. at 9. 2 . The Qur'an recites: Their messengers said: `Is there a doubt about God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? It is He who invites you, in order that He may forgive you your sins and give you respite for a term appointed.' They said: `Ah! You are no more than human, like ourselves! You wish to turn us away from what our fathers worshiped: then bring us some clear authority (reference).' Their messengers said to them; `True, we are human like yourselves, but God does grant His grace to such of His servants as He wills. It is not for us to bring you an authority except as God permits. And on God let all believers put their trust. No reason have we why we should not put our trust on God. Indeed He has guided us to the ways we (follow). We shall certainly bear with patience all the hurt you cause us. For those who put their trust should put their trust on God.' Id at 10-12. 3 . After the story of Noah, it says: "Then, We raised after them another generation. And We sent to them (each) a messenger from among themselves, (saying), `Worship God! You have no other god but Him. Will you not fear."' Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 31-32. 4 . In Sura A1 `An'am, it is said: "Lo! Abraham said to his father Azar: `Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people in manifest error.' So did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, that he might have certitude." Surah 6 A1 An'am: 74-75. The Qur'an follows the dialogue between Ibrahim and his nation. It, then, says: That was our reasoning (proof) about Us, which We gave to Abraham (to use) against his people. We raise whom We will, degree after degree, for your Lord is full of Wisdom and knowledge. We gave him Isaac and Jacob: all (three) We guided. And before him, We guided Noah and among his progeny, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, and Aaron. T'hus do We reward those who are compassionate. And Zakariyya and John, and Jesus and Elias, all in the ranks of the Righteous. And Isma'il and Elisha, and Jonah, and Lot. And all We favored above the nations. And to their fathers, and progeny and brethren, We chose them, and We guided them to a straight way. This is the Guidance of God. He gives that guidance to whom He wills of his worshippers. If they were to join other gods with Him, all that they did would be vain for them. These were to whom We gave the Book, and authority and prophethood. If these (their descendants) reject them, behold! We shall entrust their charge to a new people who will not belie them. T'hose were (the prophets) who received God's guidance. Copy the guidance they received. Say: `No reward for this do I ask of you. This is no less than a message for the worlds (people).' Id. at 83-90. The Qur'an stresses this prophetic unity and its message by saying: "Generations before you were destroyed whey they became unjust. Their messengers came to them with clear signs, but they would not believe! Thus do We requite criminal nations. Then We made you heirs in the earth (the land) after them, to see how you would behave." Surah 10 Yunus: 13-14. Then it starts with Noah: Relate to them the story of Noah. Behold! he said to his people: `O my people, if it be hard on you that I should stay (with you) and remind you of God's signs, then to God I commend my trust. Get you then an agreement about your plan and among your partners, so your plan be not to you dark and dubious. Then pass your sentence on me and give me no respite.' Id. at 71. We see here how Noah subjects himself to rule of law of his society. Then after him, We sent (many) messengers to their peoples: they brought them clear signs, but they would not believe what they had already rejected beforehand. Thus do We seal the hearts of the transgressors. Then after them sent We Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his chiefs with our signs. But they we were arrogant. They were a people in crime. Id. at 74-75. In Surah Houd, the Qur'an tells the story of Noah with detail, similar to what we have seen above. Then it mentions, in the same fashion as we saw in Surah A1 A'raf, the story of the prophets and how they asked of their people to worship God because they have no god but Him. We also read more about Moses and Pharaoh here. 5 The Qur'an recites, Say you: `We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no difference between one and another of them. And to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' So if they believe as you believe, they are indeed guided, and if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but God will suffice thee as against them, and He is the all-hearing, the all knowing. Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 136-137. There is also: Say: `We believe in God, and in what has been revealed to us and was revealed to Abraham, Isma'il; Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and in (the Books) given to Moses, Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord. We make no distinction between one and another among them and to Him we are submitters (Muslims).' Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 84. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 18 30 2009-05-06T06:30:45Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} Our legal and religious cultures were not built on strong foundations. Historically speaking, we must credit the Christian ethos for facilitating the appeara...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} Our legal and religious cultures were not built on strong foundations. Historically speaking, we must credit the Christian ethos for facilitating the appearance of the modern democratic nation-state. The notion of law as an alternative in resolving conflict has appeared, at least in limited form, within national democracies. It represents at least a small departure from ancient polarities of power, although it has not yet established itself beyond such zones. For instance, a comparison between the civilization of modern America and the ancient Egyptian civilization will show us how authority in the United States, the country of law and freedom, still depends on power, how trust still resides in muscle. The world in which we live is still incapable of putting its trust in ideas. The United Nations is a similar manifestation of our failure. Despite the appearance of democracy within the nation state, international relations are still based on force. The constitution of the United Nations manifests this limitation in comparison to the constitution of the United States1. The ultimate international political institution, yet the U.N. is based on negating both law and religion; it is based on power. The problems with the United Nations and the division between East and West are manifestations of disease that indicates the need for a new paradigm. The Charter of the United Nations suffers from a failure to adapt to a new world, for its old paradigms about force and violence no longer explain the events of this century. We therefore become victims of our misinterpretation of the factors that led to the rise of Japan, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the variables behind the European Unity, and the rapid development of many parts of South Asia. All these states were subject to a world dependent upon the realm of the intellect, not muscle. What brings about the rise or fall of a nation is no longer based on its military prowess. As such, the United States' belief that its force gives it control over the world is a form of self deception. Yet, it wants to maintain such a deception, about which it is not even embarrassed, as the children of Israel were not embarrassed to worship a lifeless golden calf.2 ::'''(Moses) said: `Get you gone!' But your (punishment) in this life will be that you will say, `Touch me not'; and moreover you have a promise that will not fail: `now look at your god, of whom you have become a devoted worshiper: We will certainly melt it in a blazing fire and scatter it broadcast in the sea!' '''(St~rah 20 Ta Ha: 95-97) The arms race is another example of the failure to expand law on an international level. All states are p]aying a game that has been rendered obsolete. They do so by either suppressing information or exploiting ignorance when the bigger states sell outdated arms or small artillery to weaker satellite states. Although force has lost its objective effectiveness, it still performs as if it were magic. The United Nations is still run like any backward country, ruled by despots, where a constitution has no value, where parliament is impotent. In fact, the United Nations is worse since its constitution does not even state theoretical equality. Rather, it institutionalizes inequality through the right of veto. The United Nation is illegitimate despite all the pervasive discourse of international legitimacy surrounding it. Its illegitimacy stems from its lack of equality, perhaps due to nations' continuing mistrust of what equality could bring. It seems global conditions have not yet reached a point where people feel the urge to enter into a new phase, and it is human nature not to enter a new phase until one has to. Intellectuals have the responsibility to raise people's consciousness, to turn the United Nations into a democratic institution, one that is based on the word of equity.3 The problems of our age are the result of our failure to adapt to a world where change is taking on an exhilarating speed in the techniques and instruments of knowledge. Yet, the quick external changes have surpassed our old paradigms, leaving them invalid and outdated. An example is the veto right, a scandal that hovers over the heads of our silent intellectuals, the fiuit of the intellectuals' harvest whether they like to admit it or not. So corrupt is our soil that a "disabled" institution has bloomed, the fruit of the twentieth century. Jesus told us to know good from evil from the fruits of such institutions: "Can grapes be picked &om briars, or figs from thistles? A good tree always yields sound fruit, and a poor [corrupt] tree bad [evil] fruit." (Matt 7:16-17) From the fiuit we know the weakness of the' international tree: we have created an institution that complicates problems instead of resolving them. The veto right is the religion and law of Pharaoh4. Pharaoh said: "If you do put forward any god other than me, I will certainly make you of the imprisoned." (Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara: 29) This is a negation of the word of equity (kalimat assawa'). The veto right is the negation of the word of justice and law, the negation of human rights and democracy. It is the ultimate corruption in our fiustrated.disabled world. The breeze of democracy, as evidenced in the rise of the European Union5, is reminiscent of the call of prophets. Democracy has reached a point where it now forbids the creation of political authority via violence. What the Prophets taught about human equality has entered our world as a science and as a consciousness. A slow and painful process, nevertheless, the birth of democracy, no matter how small and limited, represents the birth of a new era in the world. That birth is the actualization and embodiment of the call of prophets, the expansion of the notion of law. However, the key difference between modern democracy and the call of the Prophets is that the Prophets forbade the path that modern democracy has taken, legitimating the founding of a society with the blood of coercion. The prophetic way viewed even violence used against despots and oppressors as illegitimate, and denounced the glorification of rebellion. The Prophets insisted on spreading the notion of monotheism by means of moral persuasion without any use of force. That is, they insisted on creating legitimacy with legitimacy, while we still subscribe to creating legitimacy with illegitimacy. This contradiction pollutes our political thinking and immerses us in confusion and self contradiction of our speech and actions. The call of Jesus was not to change rulers; it was to change society. This fact confuses some people who want to believe that Jesus removed monotheism from politics when he said to leave for Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Reforming politics according to monotheism is a different path than using violence to disobey tyrants. The path of prophets toward inducing social and political change is financially economical and it saves human lives. Those who separate politics from religion have separated religion, justice and equality in their worship of coercion. But even those who mix politics and religion are in no mood to heed the prophetic method of social change: they too, emulate the rest of the world and accept the establishment of political authority with violence. The world is in an awkward position in relation to those crises which take violence as their role models, such as the Algerian crisis that has taken the French Revolution as its role model. The world condones the use of violence to return a lost right of self determination, a precept that is at the heart of international law. Thus, ironically, some can claim that those who do not support the violent Algerian resurgence are in essence betraying their own ideals and principles when they are not supporting the fight for democracy. But this argument does not understand a basic reality: the international crisis stems from reliance on violence and power, from reliance on the realm of the muscle rather than the realm of the intellect. The crux of the assertion that "there is no coercion in religion" is that we have to separate the realm of the intellect from the realm of the muscle. We have to create an epistemological discontinuity between intellect and coercion and its instruments. This is accomplished through freedom of belief, through moral and intellectual maturity (rushd), which is distinct from wickedness (ghay), as truth is distinct from evil, and benefit from harm. Whoever rejects wickedness (ghay, which is coercive), refuses to allow coercion in religion, and believes in God (who forbids coercion in religion), has attained the most secure of all handholds. If alchemy was about transforming rocks to gold, prophets were able to turn a human being into a rock. That is why Jesus said, "And whoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." (Matt 21:44)6 And that is why he also said to one of his disciples when he was being taken away: "Put up your sword (again into its place). All who take the sword die by the sword." (Matt 26:52) When we look at history, we find the possibility of resisting tyranny without violence. For instance, the early followers of Jesus resisted the state while they were committed to the path of nonviolence. They denied themselves the possibility of changing people's ideas through the use of force by killing them if they would not change. They kept their mission, not only in Palestine, but reached the heart of Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire to which Palestine belonged. The prophetic idea continued on the path of rejecting violence and the acceptance of persecution until society and people were transformed. In fact, the Emperor himself converted in the end. This struggle was not bloody, unlike the French Revolution, the Bolshevik Revolution and many other revolutions in the world. Rome converted to Christianity after four hundred years of peaceful, ethical, methodical difficult struggle, in which victims were only on one side. What a creative transformation, even if we still live in a world that does not comprehend this event consciously through social laws or as a political technique. What happened within Christianity in four hundred years, happened within Islam in less than fourteen years when the Prophet called people to walk the same path as the followers of Jesus. Both religions accomplished what they did by departing from worshipping tyranny (taghut) and beginning to worship God. They changed a civilization not by destroying a tyrant, but by refusing to obey his evil demands and calling him to the good (khayr). Similarly, Muslims did not enter Madinah as the result of a bloody war or revo]ution. Rather, , they did so through a persuasive transforming social movement without the use of violence or the killing of any person from the former society, which disintegrated on its own. In fact, only two Muslims were killed in Makkah during the persecution and torlure of new converts, for the new Muslims were not allowed to use self defense against them. Those who believe in the legitimacy of founding a society with violence do not realize that they sanctify violence and reinstate the law of the jungle. Such a society becomes lawless since the peop]e's trust is placed in power and aggression over intellect. When we allow ourselves to found a society by such means, we automatically allow others to use such means against us when the time comes, thus entering a deformed vicious circle that deifies tyranny and worshiping power. By refraining from the use of violent means to change society, and by prohibiting violence absolutely to one's self, one automatically enters the world of law, the law of humanity that distinguishes good from evil. And once violence becomes taboo for the self, the self creates the grounds for demanding an end to violence. Otherwise one deceives one's self and one's opponent7. Hence, all prophets forbade the use of violence in establishing a society of law, because one cannot establish such a society while one believes in the effectiveness of violence. Law and violence are contradictory in nature. The prophets wanted to create a society in which individuals do not have to resort to personal self defense. They wanted a society in which the protection of its individuals came from their abiding respect to the prescribed and contracted law. Law, in this case, represents the third party mediating between the conflicting parties. Without such a mediator, the oppressor fears to lose his status and the oppressed wish to replace the oppressor; so they become caught in a repetitive rotation. The prophets realized, even if we still do not in our day, that oppressor and oppressed are the two sides of the same coin, locked in the same relationship of power, authority and violence. The fear of losing privilege, or the yearning for it, eats away at both sides: one side is locked in a constant anguish of losing while the other is immersed in an agonizing longing to acquire. Only the appearance of the third party can remove this rotation of hierarchy. Prophets, therefore, declared their own unilateral withdrawal from conflict even if it meant that only one side was departing from violence, in order to lay the path for creating a civil society to abrogate the militant one. What prophets did and what peace activists do now is still beyond serious consideration and research by most intellectuals, and today our world continues to be locked in polarized conflicts with a marked absence of mediators, without the prophetic alternative society of the word of equity (kalimat assawa'). 1 The rule of law that has such a high place in the United States is only an internal phenomenon. It does not represent the commitment of the U.S. in the United Nations charter or in its actions throughout the world. 2 As the text says: Then he brought out (of the fire) before them (the people) a calf statue: it seemed to low: so they said: `This is your god, and the god of Moses . . . : (Moses) said: `What then is thy case O Samiri.' He replied: `I saw what they saw not so I took a handful (of dust) from the footprint of the messenger, and threw it (into the calf): thus did my self suggest to me.' Surah 20 Ta Ha: 88. 3 As Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and wise, and revealing them to the simple [unto babes]." Matt 11:25. 4 He said: "I am your Lord, Most High." Surah 79 A1 Nazi'at: 24. He adds: "If you tum to another God, I shall surely imprison you." Surah 26 Al-Shu'ara': 29. 5 The European Union is perhaps the fitst historical indication of the possibility for the expansion of democracy and, in essence, the notion of law. For the first time in history, a few nation states are uniting on the basis of equality under the law. This union, in addition, is based on popular consent rather than on the will of some despotic emperor. The European unity represents a large society governed by equity under law, the lack of which explains why Europe never united at the hands of Bonaparte or Hitler. The absence of the exclusive veto right in the European Uruon confirms its democratic nature. Consequently, the European Union in principle has the potential of developing into a model of global unity, unlike the United Nations in its present form. 6 This verse is from the King James version as the verse number 44 in Matthew 21 is missing &om the Revised English Bible. 7 The Qur'an rejects double standards, and states that abiding by one standard for one's self and by another standard for the others is an odious wrong. "O you who believe! Why say you that which you do not. Grievously odious is it in the sight of God that you say that which you do not." Surah 61 A1 Saff: 2-3. The same standard is expressed in: "[S]o be careful to do whatever they tell you. But do not follow their practice; for they say one thing and do another." Matt 23:3. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 19 31 2009-05-06T06:35:08Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} Forbidding self defense when one is persecuted by one's society and its representatives is perhaps what many find most problematic in my call for nonviolence...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} Forbidding self defense when one is persecuted by one's society and its representatives is perhaps what many find most problematic in my call for nonviolence, reviving the tradition of Adam's son, Socrates, and Muhammad to create desired social and political change. This central prophetic notion is still rejected in the world. Creating a third alternative to this polarized hierarchy between oppressor and oppressed was the mission of the prophets. Yet, if the prophetic method does not allow the founding of society through violence, some might question why there are many verses in the Qur'an that urge fighting and Jihad. To understand the true message of the Qur'an on the use of violence, we must differentiate between (1) a society founded on force, violence and coercion and (2) a society founded on the rule of law, justice and legitimacy. The former society of force is the society that prophets wanted to eradicate in order to establish the latter kind of society, based on peaceful persuasion and lack of coercion and marked by the protection it provides to its members. Fighting or the use of force has, then, to be understood within the boundaries that define the distinctions between these two forms of governing. ' The conditions in the Qur'an for the use of force in a society founded on force include the following: l. No fighting or killing is permitted to impose one's religion at any level, whether against a state or against individuals. The use of threats or intimidation to make one change his or her religion is completely rejected in Islam, though it is not exclusive to Islam. All true prophets have preached the same message because monotheism, as I have explained above, is not only a theological matter, but a socio¬political issue. Monotheism teaches its followers to refuse to be instruments in the hands of those who want to impose their religion with force. It also teaches them to refuse to accept a religion imposed on them forcefully. The human soul is sacred and may not be murdered for the sake of ideas. Thus, the Qur'an describes as true believers, "[T]hose who invoke not, with God, any other god, nor kill such life as God has made sacred . . . ." (Surah 25 AI Furqan: 68) After discussing the regret that befell Adam's second son after killing his own brother, the Qur'an reads: ::'''On that account, We ordained for the children of Israel that whoever kills a person, unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land, it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people1.''' This is not only the message of all the Prophets but the natural consequence of the movement to include freedom of belief as an inalienable right in every democratic constitution. 2. When a society of free belief is founded and it has produced its institutions, it has the obligation to protect freedom of belief among people. It also has the obligation to protect their blood and money with justice, with the word of equity. Thus, the deimition of a just society implies the application of law equally to its members regardless of the nature of that society's laws. Some might object that such a definition is useless or relativistic, because each state will consider its application just. Yet, we can not judge the equity of any system by what its members say to justify it; rather, the results and the consequences of a system will be the witness to its equity or inequity. A society of justice, when people rebel against it, has the right to prevent aggression by those who want to return it to a state of lawlessness, to the law of the jungle. This type of fighting is permitted in the Qur'an, because the just society has a legitimate right to self defense. "If two parties among the believers fall into quarrel, make peace between them: but if one of them transgresses beyond bounds against the other, then fight against the one that transgresses until it complies with the command of God; but if it complies, then make peace between them with justice, and be fair: for God loves those who are fair (and just)." (Surah ~9 A1 Hujurat: 9) Preventing aggression is the only violence allowed within a state of equity, and only when all other means have been exhausted. (Here I am referring specifically to physical aggression by those who want to impose their order through the use of force and not through intellectual instigation.) Aggression is to be stopped, through force if other means fail, for it breaches the state of law in a society. It is important to repeat again and again that violence can be used in a society of justice only to stop those who kill people and exile them for their ideas or ethnicities, for it is the obligation of such a society "regardless of its name or nationality" to install justice among people. If such aggression occurs, we should not be misled by the religious affiliation of the rebels; we should not be misled by names or labels of piety, religiosity, or infidelity. "And say not to anyone who offers you a salutation (of peace): `You are none of a believer! "' (Surah 4 Al Nisa': 94) There is, if fact, an Islamic term for such rebels against a just society: they are called the rebellious outsiders, (khawarij) or aggressors (bughat). Moreover those who practice justice are practically speaking monotheistic because monotheism is about rejecting tyranny and injustice. Conversely, those who believe in tyranny are committing social polytheism, the sin that is never forgiven. That is why the verse commanding "no coercion in religion" is followed by the promise that ::'''God is the ally (and protector) of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith their allies are the evil ones!: from light they will lead them forth into the depth of darkness . . . :' '''(Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 257) After the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) founded a society in Madinah, through moral, social and political persuasion, four khalifahs (Caliphs) ruled Madinah successively after his death. They did not abduct authority with the sword; nor did they make their position hereditary for their children. Muslims called these "Al ~hulafa ' a1¬rashidun" ("the rightly-Guided Caliphs"). It is interesting that no khalifah in Muslim history was ever labeled "rashid' (singular for rashidun) after that. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the practice stopped because all the other khalifahs came to power either through the sword or through heredity. This is possibly a collective statement by Muslims about the rule of the later khalifahs. This silence implies that even if Muslims could not bring back the political legitimacy of the early khalifahs, they did not lose their understanding of what is meant in the Qur'an by rushd. However, what is problematic in the Muslims' understanding of the era of rushd is that they do not see rushd as a human product. Instead, they understand it as the result of unusual divine intervention, a direct divine blessing on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and his companions. This is the grievous error that has befallen the Muslims in understanding their own history and tradition. Their sin of misunderstanding has been overtaken by developments in the modern world, where rushd has appeared through human creation in the form of late modern democracies. The Qur'an clearly declares that the ruler who comes through coercion is not rashid (someone who is legitimately in power, morally and intellectually mature), but a taghut (tyrant) and is thus illegitimate. Yet, Muslims have failed to understand that reinstating governance with violence is illegitimate; so they regressed to accepting the use of violence in the making of political authority. They have therefore entered the circle of the law of the jungle once more; and from it, they have not been able to escape. The promising exception to this vicious circle is the recent developments in Muslim politics in Turkey. Turkey accepted the democratic challenge, of all the countries in the Muslim World. It is also the same country that followed the example of Western secularization, and rejected religion in a revolution similar to those that took place in the West. However, this country that historically passed over the Muslim World by rejecting Islam and Islamic rule-which was no longer in a state of rushd-reinstated rushd. It accepted the notion of political authority through the path of legitimacy. If this pattern proliferates in the Muslim World, perhaps rushd has a chance of returning to it, just as Europe is entering a new moment of unity based on its own rushd, a unity based on legitimacy. These historical events are significant in the movement of humanity at large. We should take their signals, moving to speed up the process of the return to "guidance" rather than fearing or retreating from them. Those who dread such a spread of democracy and equality only fear the loss of their privileges. They do not realize that they will not lose anything, but instead gain security. 3. The relationship between a society of justice and equity and an unjust society is subject to certain conditions. As suggested, the Qur'an demands that societies give up two practices: A. The killing of people because of their ideas, beliefs, convictions and mental perceptions. B. Exiling of people for the same reasons mentioned above. The Qur'an is clear on this: "God forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not in religion nor drive you out of your homes, &om dealing kindly and justly with them: for God loves those who are just." (Surah 60 Al Mumtahinah: 8) Similarly, if other societies "withdraw from you but fight you not, and (instead) send you (guarantees of) peace, then God has opened no way for you (to war against them). If they withdraw not from nor give you peace nor restrain their hands, seize them and kill them wherever you get them; in their case we have provided you with a clear authority (argument) against them." (Surah 4 Al Nisa': 90-91) This is the charter of fighting in the Qur'an, and all the verses in the Qur'an that deal with fighting or the use of force are constrained within these specific limits. Any society that does not practice either one of these two evils-killing and exiling people because of the ideas they carry-is protected and beyond reproach according to the Qur'an2. Hence, any fighting outside the boundaries of these conditions is rendered tyrannical, and turns into a fighting for taghut. It becomes similar to the fighting of jahiliyah, the age (of ignorance) preceding Islam, and not the kind of fighting the Qur'an decreed. As long as there is murdering and exiling of people because of their opinions, the Qur'an decrees that a society of justice-which has founded itself legitimately-has distinct power to stop such persecution and to use violence as a last resort. In summary, we could say that fighting is allowed in the Qur'an in two conditions, one regarding the society that uses force, the other regarding the society against which force is used. The society that uses force has to be a society founded legitimately through peaceful means. 'The society against which force is used has to be murdering people and exiling them. Therefore, if the world no longer has a society that commits such atrocities, fighting would cease. Once people enter the word of equity, war is obsolete and people will coexist in a world of peace. Understanding the conditions of the use of force in the Qur'an better would allow us to understand what happened to Muslims as to many other previous nations. In many places, Muslims articulated and developed their culture after they had lost rushd and adapted to the ways of ghay. Hence, they legitimated the making of political authority through violence. They were incapable of comprehending social change through persuasion, albeit yearning nostalgically for the age of rushd and the prophetic model. This age has taken on a certain significance in the Muslim collective imagination. Yet, it is also a period that is placed beyond history and therefore marked with an absence of analysis of the laws and factors that enabled the Prophet to create such a society. Perhaps what also caused Muslims' confusion regarding the issues of force and legitimacy is their failure to distinguish the contexts of war and peace. They could not and still do not differentiate the contexts in which the use of force is allowed and the contexts in which even self defense is absolutely forbidden. Hence, the verses and Hadith about force are not understood within notions of legitimacy and within the rules that sanction the use of force in the Qur'an. The constant references in both the Qur'an and Hadith to the sanctity of using arms are, therefore, presented in Islamic tradition without an accompanying analysis about prerequisites and conditions that sanction violence. In one instance, for example, the Prophet praises the use of arms to the point where he says that God would admit three persons to paradise with one arrow: its maker, its carrier, and its archer. Yet, what escapes Muslims is the abundance of Hadith that prohibit the use of arms to the point where the Prophet orders the destruction of one's arms, even if unilaterally, and to rid one's self of one's sword. A closer look at what may appear as self contradictory commands discloses that the command to take up arms is subject to the context and conditions of fighting discussed above. In fact, there are no contradictions if one understands the rules and circumstances that decree violence and the rules and conditions that prohibit it. Similarly, there is great consistency between the Qur'an, the Hadith and the Prophet's behavior when it comes to the use of force. Notions such as fitna (disorder) and baghy (aggression) are juristic terms. The Prophet was referring to such times when he said: "Break your arrow and cut its bow and hit your sword on a rock." He even commanded taking refuge in the mountains or tending one's own business. There is a discernable body of Hadith that deals with the issue of social disorder and the abstinence from violence. In one Hadith, the Prophet addressed Abi Dhar when he asked: ::'''`Do not I take up my sword?' The Prophet said: `You, then, would have participated with these people (becoming their accomplice).' Abu Dhar, then asked: `So, what do you order me to do?' The Prophet said: `If you fear the glittering of the sword, throw your garment over your face so that [the aggressor] carries the onus of your sin as well as his3. However the Hadith dealing with limits on the use of violence in social disorder are rarely, if ever, quoted in Islamic scholarship. There are of course reasons for this omission. People who adapt to the ways of tyranny (taghut) cannot benefit from their sacred texts or what the Prophets established. The entire Islamic tradition, except for the Qur'an, was written after Muslims lost the mode of governance based on rushd. Alas, the Islamic tradition adapted to the age of tyranny rather than the model established by the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). My wonder at this fact ceased when I realized how Western thought was also captured by the age of tyranny, and has never adapted to the message of Jesus. The legitimatization of the use of violence and killing to create political change in the Western civilization has also supported the continuity of this line of political thought. It reified Post-Qur'anic Islamic notions about political change, and has resulted in constant attempts to bring back rushd through revolution. But since violence has become taboo in modern Western democratic political behavior, it has created intellectual and political contradictions similar to those in the history of Muslims. Thus, even if violence has become prohibited as a means of changing rulers or amending bills of law, ideas about the legitimacy of violence and revolution are revered at the level of historical political discourse. Such a world of peace is not a utopian illusion. It has actually become possible if not urgent. Just as slavery was abolished, which was a consequence of war, so will war be abolished. Instead, human energies could be put into competition for inventing instruments that would communicate the lessons of humanity's struggles and efforts to the people. It is the lack of knowledge and understanding of events that leads people to misconceptions and therefore to misconduct; it is false ideas that lead them to hatred and bloodshed. Coming to terms with the philosophical implications in the prophetic method of social and political change will put the world into a truly new order based on equity and will resolve such intellectual dilemmas. Big and small tyrannies will collapse. It is the role of intellectuals to disclose the extent of the gap that separates the world from religion and democracy, because we live in a world were religion is understood as coercion and compulsion and law as the acceptance of privilege. As coercion negates religion, privilege negates law. The call of prophets has to be addressed in a new light to validate and enforce people's trust in religion, law and humanity. Humanity now lives a crisis of trust. If the world is silent about the deformation of the meaning of religion and law, history does not spare those who ignore its laws: ::'''"Such is the chastisement of your Lord when He chastises communities in . the midst of their injustice: grievous, indeed, and severe is his chastisement." '''(Surah 11 Hud: 102) The Qur'an reminds us that those who do not take lessons from history will themselves become lessons for others. The movement of history will not stop for them, for God will give their inheritance to others, and "neither heaven nor earth [will] shed a tear over them4." "[T]hey were unjust to themselves (therein). At length We made them as tales (that are told) and We dispersed them all in scattered fragments. ::'''Verily in this are signs for everyone that is patiently constant and grateful." '''(Surah 34 Saba': 19) Our history is, alas, still a fulfillment of the angels' predictions about our species. Human relationships based on equity and compassion rather than power are still seen by some Western thinkers as a radical challenge to Western culture and to all world cultures. This is because the authentic experiences of such relationships practiced with prophetic consciousness are marginalized and fall outside historical analysis. Intellectuals of our time view those who have led movements toward equity and justice, particularly those who were murdered for their ideas such as Adam's son, Socrates, Jesus and Gandhi, as victims of their ideals. What they overlook is the intellectual seeds these figures left behind. The condemnation of violence in our age, even if it is only at a rhetorical level, is some indication that killing is declining as a heroic model worthy of reverence. Thus, the blood of Adam's son did not go to waste. The cry of his blood is read by millions of men, women and children in the world even if they do not comprehend its significance and implications now: ::'''Cain said to his brother Abel, `Let us go out into the country.' Once there, Cain attacked and murdered his brother . . . . The Lord said, `What have you done? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground. Now you are accursed and will be banished from the very ground which has opened its mouth to receive the blood you have shed . . . .' Cain said to the Lord, `My punishment is heavier than I can bear.' '''(Gen 4:8-14) And they will remember also the words of Adam's son: ::'''If you do stretch your hand to kill me, I (surely) will not stretch my hand to kill you: for I fear God, the cherisher of the worlds (of all). I intend to let you draw on yourself my sin as well as yours, for you will be among the companions of the Fire, and that is the reward of those who are unjust (aggressors). '''(Surah 5 A1 Ma'idah: 31-32) Figuratively speaking, we are the descendants of the killer son, but we started to realize ways of becoming the descendants of the other son, with an increasing reverence for the nervous system and the realm of the intellect. ==Footnotes== 1 The passage continues: "then although there came to them our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land." Surah 5 Al Ma'idah: 35. 2 The Qur'an says: "1'hose who believe fight in the cause of God, and those who disbelieve fight in the cause of tyranny: so fight against the allies of Satan: feeble indeed is the cunning of Satan." Surah 4 A1 Nisa: 76. 3 As just some of the best examples of this body of Hadith, read the following: taken from the abridgement of Abi Dawood by the al-Hafiz al-Mundhiri, edition of (Publishers of Sunna Mohammadia 1949), at page 142 section 6 under the numbers 4090, 40, and 4095 (placed here in the same order). The Prophet said, `There will be disorder where that who is lying down is better than who is sitting, that who is sitting is better than that who is standing and that who is standing is better than who is walking. The one walking is better than one running.' They said: `What do you demand of us in such a time?' The prophet said: `Those who have camels should attend them, and those who have sheep should go after their sheep, and those who have land should take care of it.' They said: `If one does not have any of such.' He said: `Then he should take his sword, hit its edge on a rock and save himself to the best of his ability.' (produced by Bukhari and Muslim). They said, `Prophet of God, what if he entered my house and stretched his hand to kill me!' He said: `Be like the son of Adam', and he read the verses from the Qur'an, `If you stretch your hand to kill me, I will not kill thee, for I fear God . . . .' Surah 5 Al Ma'idah: 31. The Prophet said: "I see fintnas (states of disorder) coming like the pieces of a dark night where a man wakes up a believer and goes into the evening an infidel and goes into the evening a believer and wakes up an infidel. The sitting ones are better than the standing. And the walking ones are better than the running. So, break your bows and cut your strings and hit your swords on rocks. If you are attacked, be like the better son of Adam. 4 The entire passage reads: `Thus (was their end)! And We gave their inheritance to other people. And neither heaven nor earth shed a tear over them: nor were they given respite (again).' Surah 44 AI Dukhan: 29. `Then sent We our messengers in succession: every time there came to a people their messenger, they accused him of falsehood: so We made them follow each other (in punishment): We made them as a tale (that is told): so way with a people that will not believe.' Surah 23 AI Mu'minun: 44. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 12 19 2009-04-29T12:22:04Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} The meaning of the universe is evasive. It is something beyond our comprehension. Nevertheless, we can see pmpose in everything from the nucleus to the Gala...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The meaning of the universe is evasive. It is something beyond our comprehension. Nevertheless, we can see pmpose in everything from the nucleus to the Galaxy, and in every creature and moment in the evolution of the human species. We can see how the universe is progressing towards an end that is neither arbitrary nor wrong According to the Qur'an, God is beyond human perception: "And there is none like unto Him." (Surah 112 A1 Ikhlas: 4) "[T]here is nothing whatever like unto Him." (Surah 42 A1 Shura: 11) "No vision can grasp Him. But his grasp is over all vision . . . ." (Surah 6 Al An'am: 103) God is the essence of existence, and the meaning of the universe. Faith in God is the secret of existence. Nevertheless, we sometimes conceive of the universe as lacking w purpose because of a fragmented worldview, one that does not conceive of existence sequentially, nor sees it through time. Many perceive existence as arbitrary and worthy of rejection. When this sense that the world is arbitrary overshadows the glory and beauty of existence, we live disconnected with the world. ::'''Did you then think that We had created you in jest (arbitrarily), and that you would not be brought back to us (for account). Therefore exalted be God, the King, the Reality: there is no god but, the Lord of the throne of honour!''' (Surah 23 A1 Mu'minun: 115-116) Consequently, we should reject not existence itself but those who impose upon others the belief that the world is arbitrary. This is what the Qur'an and Bible do. Many respected thinkers advocate such nihilistic ideas and so make others lose their sense of purpose in life and forego any hope of finding a meaning to existence. Both the Qur'an and the Bible warn of such tendencies: ::'''`[B]ut who does more wrong than one who concocts a lie against God, to lead astray people without knowledge . . . .' (Surah 6 Al An'am: 144) `[A]nd hinder them from the path of God ....' '''(Surah 9 Al Tawbah: 34) ::'''The Bible confirms this warning: `Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces; you do not enter yourselves, and when others try to enter, you stop them.' (Matt 23:13) Jesus goes on and calls them the `Blind guides (who) strain off a midge, yet gulp down a camel!' '''(Matt 23:24) Yet, even those who deny that there is a purpose to the universe live in ways that contradict their very own ideas. For example, once one of my visitors argued that the universe is arbitrary. I said to him: "If what you are saying were true and you believed in it, you would not have visited me and you would not have discussed this with me. Your own strife shows your faith in a truth for which you are searching." The Qur'an contends that unlike most human behavior, which is learned by human beings after they come into the world, faith in God is something that a human being is born with, something that he or she is imprinted with, just as other creatures are imprinted with the behavior appropriate to their species. The searching and yearning that my visitor experienced is always present because the human body, by design, requires purpose. Genes in the human nervous system demand meaning. Thus, humans come to life with a profound curiosity that challenges any nihilism and loss of purpose1;' a human being is innately a creature in search of meaning and order in the universe, a creature who instinctively responds to the demand of monotheism. Belief in God implies a rejection of the notion that the universe is arbitrary, even though it permits a wide and open range of views about the meaning of the universe that still give honor to God2: ::'''Those who celebrate the praises of God, standing, sitting and lying down on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of) creation in the heavens and the earth, (with the thought): `Our Lord! Not for naught have You created (all) this! Glory to You! Give us salvation &om the penalty of the Fire.' '''(Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 190¬191) Justice and the word of equity are not nihilistic notions, nor is compassion arbitrary. Nihilism lies in the attempt to conceal or the inability to see the demands of justice, piety and compassion throughout history. While people despair out of the long whimsical lives they lead and "many false prophets will rise, and will mislead many; and as lawlessness (inequity) spreads, the love of many will grow cold," (Matt 24:11-12) the longing and yearning for knowledge, from which love grows, does not die. It is true that human beings are willing to give away their lives and fortunes for the sake of self actualization, and the yearning for self actualization is a flame that never dies. Yet, it is possible for us to mistake the movement of the sun, and still we are capable of correcting such wrongs and of moving beyond them once and for all. History imposes purpose and meaningfulness. Any understanding bereft of history is disconnected and arbitrary. History teaches us this. But history is a vision that includes the present, past and future. Any person capable of seeing this reality is in perpetual prayer and in touch with the sacred. S/he is "involved" with the universe, driven to pursue the best. History, without weariness, is like a patient instructor and humanity is like a clever student who finally understands its lessons. At the end, humanity comes to the call of history and moves forward to economize and invest in resources. Humanity comes to learn about its capacities through history. Thus, it is perhaps possible to see why that . which brings the best out in a human being is never the result of coercion. Human beings have a longing for the meaning of their own lives and the world around them, and we must be skilled in investing in this longing, rather than bludgeoning it with coercion. History exemplifies God's investment in human understanding and His stand against the waste of coercion: "Soon will We show them our signs in the horizons, and in their own selves, until it becomes manifest to them that this is the truth . . . ." (Surah 41 Fussilat: 53) The signs in our selves and in the horizons (or universe) reveal the truth, tempting human intelligence to perform its meaning-making role by reaching for the best outcome with the least effort and energy. The constant law of history has as its goal keeping that which is the largest benefit for the greatest number of people who live on earth, and not that which benefits some of them. This is a significant law; it is what distinguishes truth from evil in the Qur'an: ::''' "Thus does God (by parables) show forth truth and falsehood. For the foam (scum) dries out (disappears) like forth cast out; while that which is for the benefit of humankind remains on the earth . . . ." '''(Surah 13 Al Ra'd: 17) This law is the decisive point of reference. It does not spare those who slack behind: it will abrogate them. That which is more beneficial to humankind will supersede that which is less beneficial, whether in technology or human understanding. "None of our revelations do we abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something either better or similar: do you not know that God has power over all things." (Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 106) The Qur'an confirms this through a dialogue between Abraham and his people: ::'''`Behold,' he said to this father and his people: `What worship you?' They said: `We worship idols, and we remain constantly in attendance on them.' He said: `Do they listen to you when you call (on them), Or do you good or harm?' They said: `Nay, but we found our fathers doing thus.' '''(Surah 26 A1 Shu'ara': 71-74) Abraham is demanding a good outcome, benefits that his people would reap from their pious belief and behavior. In fact we might consider Abraham the first pragmatist in the sense that he sought the public good and not private privilege. However, his nation did not share his view; they followed their fathers' examples. The Qur'an, in contrast, presents the prophetic standard as a regime of permissions and prohibitions which are based on whether the outcomes of human behavior are beneficial or harmful: ::''' [F]or he [the Prophet] commands them what is agreeable and forbids them what is disagreeable (unseemly); he allows them as lawful what is good (and healthy) and prohibits them from what is vile; he releases them from their heavy burdens and from the yokes that are upon them. '''(Surah 7 Al A'raf 157) The Qur'an stresses and relies on this standard in deciding what is permissible and what is taboo3. The Qur'an presents the laws given for human benefit as the crux of the call of all the messengers. Monotheism, which is the essence of these laws, is the message of all prophets, all people of knowledge and all those who call for justice. The Qur'anic recitation of the prophetic message, "Worship God and eschew evil" demands that the people come to the word of equity. The cause of all prophets has thus shifted from the theological and metaphysical to the social and political, and the religious issue becomes the secular issue. This movement is an important one to which we must pay attention, so that we will not separate the sacred from the profane, the divine from the secular, the world from the hereafter. The core of the relationship between law and religion, and the mission of all prophets, is in the solution of the problem of violence and subjugation. Throughout history we see that the main problem with the human condition is humanity's rejection of the call for equality, or in the Qur'anic language, the word of equity4. Those who reject the word of equity have assumed superiority over all humanity, exalting themselves as gods above others and assuming for themselves all the sacredness and transcendentalism of the divine5. In these examples, we see that the common message of all prophets was to bring people to worshipping God and taking them away from obeying wicked tyrannies (taghut) even while the subjugated ones accept this domination rather than throwing it off. The prophets demanded an end to this repeated rotation of roles between oppressors and oppressed because they understood that such a polarized relationship is based on violence and subjugation. It is easy to argue that the major conflict in human existence is between theological and humanistic visions, but in fact, the major problem human beings face is social. It is about oppression and justice, equality and privileges, an oppressor imposing his earthly divinity and slaves oppressed by their own ignorance, succumbing to power and accepting domination. History, too, presses for a solution. So, if we can respond to the problem of violence and history together, we will give humanity a forcible push toward solving its greatest dilemma, the schizophrenic disease of all civilizations. The birth of healing and the end of the crises is near. Our challenge lies in how to turn the relationship between law and religion from being destructive and painful to being constructive and healing6. ==Footnotes== 1 "When your Lord drew forth from the children of Adam, from their loins-their descendants, and made them testify concerning themselves, (saying): `Am I not your Lord?' They said: `We do testify' (This), lest you should say on the Day of Judgement: `Of this we were never mindful."' Surah 7 A1 A'raf: 172. 2 For instance, the Qur'an says: "Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, And the alternation of Night and Day . . . there are indeed signs for those of hearts (understanding)." Surah 2 A1 Baqarah: 164. 3 For example, the Qur'an mentions the reason behind forbidding wine by using the standard of weighing harms and benefits: "They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: `In them is great sin, and some profit for people; but the sin is greater than the profit . . , "' Id at 219. 4 Surah 3 Ali `Imran: 64. Christ described the difficulty of the path that leads to life: "[N]arrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life, and those who find them are few." Matt 7:14. 5 The Qur'an quotes Pharaoh's superiority and assumed divinity as we saw above in verses: 79 An-Nazi'at: 24; 28 Al-Qasas: 38; 26 Ash-Shu'araa: 290. Pharaoh even threatened those who believed in Moses. (Pharaoh) said: `Believe you in him before I give you permission? Surely this must be your leader who has taught you magic! I will certainly cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have crucified on trunks of palm trees: so shall you know for certain which of us can give the more severe and the more lasting punishment!' Surah 20 Ta Ha: 71. And we see the same in the dialogue of Abraham with the pharaoh of his age. "Abraham said: `My Lord is He who gives life and death.' He said: `I give life and death . . ."' Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 258. 6 Christ described the difficulty of the path that leads to life: "[N]arrow is the gate and constricted the road that leads to life, and those who find them are few." Matt 7:14. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 8 15 2009-04-29T11:42:51Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} Moreover, the Qur'an expands the circle of messengers, opening the door for the possibility of recognizing messengers even if they were not mentioned in the...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} Moreover, the Qur'an expands the circle of messengers, opening the door for the possibility of recognizing messengers even if they were not mentioned in the Qur'an. After specifically naming and describing the traits of messengers, the Qur'an tells us that there are messengers it had not mentioned. We did aforetime send messengers before you: of them there are some whose story We have related to you, and some whose story We have not related to you. It was not (possible) for any messenger to bring a sign except by the leave of God: But when the command of God issued, the matter was decided in truth, and there perished, there and then, those who stood on falsehoods. (Surah 40 Ghafir: 78)1 Admitting the existence of messengers who were not mentioned in the Qur'an opens the door for the possible recognition of others who exhibit the traits of messengers. Thus, for example, after establishing these traits, perhaps we should study Socrates to see whether his determination to live by his ideas and principles and his sense that he had a duty to disseminate them suggests that he is a prophet. We are prevented from denying the possibility of prophecy to other religious and cultural figures. This approach combats racism and ethnocentrism. It invites us to recognize from every tradition all those who meet the criteria defning what it is to be a messenger, such as the call for justice and equity. It also permits us to agree upon the importance of justice and equity. Recognizing that there are messengers beyond those mentioned in the monotheistic religious texts, or the cultural space into which Abraham and Noah were sent, makes it possible for us to acknowledge the messengers of other cultures, whether in the Far East, Africa, or among the indigenous peoples of the new continents. Many nations and peoples are now looking at their ancient cultural roots as a way of self affirmation and establishing self identity. This approach of recognizing further messengers puts humanity on the path of monotheism through the recognition of what is common among our messengers and sages. It will help foster cooperation and mutual understanding, and it will create the mutual recognition that we are equal participants in the journey of humanity, for the Qur'an states that there has never been a nation without a messenger: ::'''For We assuredly sent amongst every people a messenger, (with the command), `Serve God, and eschew tyranny (evil) ....' (Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 36)2 `Never would We visit with our wrath until We had sent a messenger'.''' (Surah 17 A1 Isra': 15) However, I frequently say that the prophetic vision of the future, which implies competition for the good of humanity, has not reached human consciousness yet (or emerged as a model for human behavior). People have not yet acquired the power to leap intellectually into the prophetic vision, for they get caught in the snares of the past. There, they subvert prophetic competition so that it becomes a contest in evil, a race towards destruction. This failing of humanity we must work towards overcoming at the least possible price. We must remember the suffering of those who advanced progressive ways for bringing out the best in human beings. Even if most of humanity sees only the road blocks, we can look into history to those pioneers who have been creative in bringing humans to their full potential. The Qur'an gives support and encouragement to sustain the messengers of reform who face difficult obstacles3. The messages in the Qur'an repeatedly condemn pessimism, explaining that despair and gloom are not characteristic of believers4. The Qur'an also states: "They said: `We give thee glad tidings in truth: be not in despair!' He said: `And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord, but such as go astray?"' (Surah 15 A1 Hijr: 55-56) Rather, the Qur'an encourages an optimistic world-view that sees life as subject to human intervention and control, and considers humans as capable of solving their problems. "And He has subjected to you, as &om Him, all that is in the heavens and on earth: behold, in that are signs indeed for those who reflect." (Surah 45 A1 Jathiyah: 13) The Qur'anic vision encourages humans to strive in learning the laws of existence so that they can become better equipped to utilize the resources of the universe, including humanity, for a larger good. If we fail to do so, it does not mean that the universe around us is beyond utility. Rather, it means that we have failed to learn to extract the potential powers in the universe. The Seal of Prophethood The Qur'an places emphasis on yet another category of human beings. Just as the Qur'an expanded the messengerial category, it also introduced a new category, that of humans who suffer because of their knowledge and call for justice. The introduction of this category signifies a new historical shift. In Islam, this shift is known as the "seal of prophecy5." "Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but (he is) the messenger of God, and the seal of the Prophets: and God has full knowledge of all thing." (Surah 33 Al-Ahzab: 40) This revelation announces the end of the era of traditional prophecy and marks the beginning of the role of the people of knowledge who call for justice and equity. The rise in knowledge and justice makes idealism realistic. It also makes the transcendental capable of being witnessed, the divine human, and the supernatural nomothetic. It renders monotheism a call for justice. Thus, prophecy is merged with knowledge, and reception from God is now through knowledge. The idea of the seal of prophethood is a singularly valuable notion, for it recognizes an evolution in the methodology of the transmittal of knowledge. Its consequences are far-reaching, its prefaces identifiable. It is a shift towards new ways of knowing. ==Footnotes== 1 The Qur'an creates this space by stating that it has not related to us the stories of all prophets: "We have sent thee revelation, as We sent it to Noah and the messengers after him: We sent revelation to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, to Jesus, Job, Jonah, Aaron, and Solomon, and to David We gave the Psalms. Of some messengers We have already told thee the story; of others We have not-and to Moses God spoke direct; Messengers who gave good news as well as warning, that human, after (the coming) of the messengers, should have no plea against God: for God is exalted in power, Wise." Surah 4 A1 Nisa: 163-165. 2 See Surah 40 Ghafir: ?8. We also see in the Qur'an the passages: "To every people (we sent) a messenger: when messenger comes (before them), the matter will be judged between them withjustice, and they will ttot wronged (done injustice to)." Surah 10 Yunus: 47. "Verily We sent you in truth, as a bearer of glad tidings, and as a warner: and there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them (in the past)." 5urah 35 Fatir: 24. 3 The Qur'an recites: "Until, when the messengers give up hope (of their people) and (come to) think that they were treated as liars, there reaches them our help, and those whom We will are delivered into safety. But never will be warded off our punishment from criminal nations." Surah 12 Yusuf: I10. 4 As the Qur'an says: "(A]nd never give up hope of God's soothing mercy: truly no one despairs of God's soothing mercy, except those who have no faith." Id at 87. ' 5 This term is to be found in Surah 33, which reads: "Those who communicate (preach) the messages of God, and fear Him and fear none but God. And God is enough to call (people) to account." Surah 33 Al-Ahzab: 39. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 14 21 2009-04-29T13:07:09Z Admin 1 Created page with '{{LAW and RELIGION}} The Qur'an approaches the relationship between humanity and the rest of existence in an interesting scene, which evokes imagination and historical contemplat...' wikitext text/x-wiki {{LAW and RELIGION}} The Qur'an approaches the relationship between humanity and the rest of existence in an interesting scene, which evokes imagination and historical contemplation: ::'''`Behold,' your Lord said to the angels: `I will create a khalifah (vicegerent) on earth.' They said: `Will You place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood? While we do celebrate Your praises (chant gratitude) and glorify Your holy (name)?' He said: `I know what you know not.' '''(Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 30) In the story, the word "Khalifah " (Caliph or vicegerent) stands for a creature, who will be trusted to perform tasks assigned by God. In a discussion about the human project, the angels object because this creature, they claim, will spread corruption and spill blood; for them, corruption is the absence of equality, the hierarchy of superiority and inferiority, and bloodshed is the result of this corrupt relationship. God responds that He knows what they do not know in terms of this creature's abilities and potential. Another Qur'anic passage suggests that humanity has been given a place of trust, because of our ability through the nervous system to know good &om evil, to carry the covenant. "Agreement, covenant, trust, integrity, knowledge, loyalty" are the words used in the Qur'an to stress the uniqueness of the human condition and our special existential status in relation to other creatures: "We did indeed offer the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains but they declined to undertake it, being a&aid thereof but insan (the human being) undertook it. He was indeed oppressive and ignorant." (Surah 33 Al Ahzab: 72) This is also the same meaning we find in the book of Genesis: "The Lord God . . . said, `The man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil . . . . "' (Gen 3:22) The Heavens and other creatures are incapable of distinguishing good from evil, incapable of disobedience. Only humanity has the capacity for obedience and disobedience, for humanity alone has knowledge of harms and benefits. In the dialogue between God and the angels about humanity, the angels admit their ignorance when they are faced with the new creature's capacity: ::'''And He taught Adam all the names; then he placed them before the angels, and said : `Tell Me the names of these if you are right.' They said: `Glory to You: of knowledge: we have none, save what You have taught us: in truth it is You who are perfect in knowledge and wisdom.' He said: `O Adam! Tell them their names.' When he had told them, God said: `Did I not tell you that I know the secrets of heaven and earth, and I know what you reveal and what you conceal?' '''(Surah 2 A1 Baqara: 33) It is as if God is saying that this creature's potential comes from its ability to name, to give symbolic designation to things in creation, an ability that makes humans worthy to become God's deputies on earth. Through this human ability to symbolize, God's prophecy will unfold, even though humanity itself does not see this divine futuristic vision. Our species is still realizing the expectations and predictions of the angels, instead of God's vision1. Indeed, Satan himself is unwilling to accept God's conferral of authority upon humans2, tempting them with the prospect of their own power as gods: ::'''Then did Satan make them slip from the (garden), and get them out of the state (of felicity) in which they had been. We said: `Get you down, all (you people), with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling place and your means of livelihood for a time.' '''(Id. at 36) ::'''Then began Satan to whisper suggestions (insinuate) to them, in order to reveal to them their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: "Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest you should become angels or join those who are immortal3." '''(Surah 7 Al-A'raf 20) However, when Adam and Eve fall for Satan's lure, God addresses them equally to signify their equal responsibility and status, and they confess the injustice they have committed: "They said: `Our Lord! We have been unjust to ourselves (wronged ourselves). If You forgive us not and bestow not upon us Your mercy, we shall certainly be lost. "' (Id. at 23) It is perhaps this ability to admit the truth that made Adam worthy of vicegerency4, unlike Satan, or (Iblis), who thought himself too important to recognize the trust given to Adam. Not only did Satan refuse to take responsibility for his own actions5, but he took pride in his material origins: (God) said: "What prevented you from bowing down when I commanded you?" He said: "I am better than he: You did create me from fire, and him from clay." (Id. at 12) Like Satan, the racial pride and reference to one's origins and refusal to take responsibility for disobedience leads to religious, ethnic and even civilizational conflicts. History teaches us that civilizations do not perish as martyrs, but as suicides from their internal diseases. Solutions come from the self, from discovering one's mistakes, not from blaming others. That is why the Qur'an suggests that God is not responsible for injustice, for injustice comes from the self and is worse than injustice inflicted by any other6. The Soviet Union perished through its own injustice and so will other societies, even those that consider themselves to be orthodox, to be beloved sons of God. The Qur'an condemns what some call orthodoxy as self perceived exalted status, and shows how judging other nations as less worthy is a common problem that afflicts us all: "And they say: `None shall enter Paradise unless he be a Jew or a Christian.' Those are their (vain) desires. Say: `Produce your proof if you are truthful. "' (Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 112) All religious and political communities reward themselves with a monopoly over paradise in their stories and tales. These are only mere human wishes, which many previous nations have expressed; but the law of the Lord in history is not based on some whimsical illusion or on favoritism for some at the expense of others. According to the Qur'an, the law of the Lord does not distinguish among humans. "Nay¬whoever submits his face (self) to God while compassionate (doer of good) has his reward with his Lord; on such shall be no fear, Nor shall they grieve." (Id. at 111)7 ==Footnotes== 1 It is said: "And behold, We said to the angels: `Bow down to Adam:' and they bowed down: not so Iblis (Satan): he refused and was haughty; he was of infidels." Surah 2 AI Baqarah: 34. 2 "We said: `O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as (where and when) you will; but approach not this tree, or you be among the unjust (transgressors)."' Id. at 35. 3 The passage continues: "And he swore to them both, that he was their sincere adviser. So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over themselves. . . . And their Lord called unto them: "Did I not forbid you that tree, And tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?" Surah 7 Al-A'raf 21-22. 4 Although the Qur'an states that Satan had a big role in tempting them to eat from the tree by arguing that it would give them immortality and eternal authority, Adam and Eve confessed that it was they who wronged themselves. Satan presented himself as a sincere counsel. But Adam and Eve did not mention Satan's temptation and misleading. Rather, they took the burden of responsibility without trying to place blame somewhere else. T'hey perhaps even felt that blaming Satan would condemn them twice whereas admitting the truth could redeem their wrong 5 We hear: Then We bade the angels bow down to Adam, and they bowed down; not so Iblis; He refused to be of those who bowed down. (God) said: `Get thee down from this: it is not for thee to be arrogant here: get out, for thou art of the meanest.' He said: `Give me respite till the day they are raised up.' (God) said: `Be thou amongst those who have respite.' He said: `Because Thou hast thrown me out of the way (misled me), lo! I will lie in wait for them on thy straight way.' Surah 7 A1 A'raf 12-16. It is impottant to note that Satan had two reasons to excuse his disobedience. First, he used his material origin, arguing that he was created of a matter better than Adam's. Second, he used his worldview to explain his disobedience, arguing that God made him sin. 6 For instance, there are passages that read: "Whatever good, happens to you, is &om God; but whatever evil happens to you is from your own self." Surah 4 Al-Nisaa: 79. "God was not unjust to them: nay, they were unjust to themselves." Surah 16 A1 Nahl: 33. So, any judgement about others is a judgement about one's self be it good or bad. Moreover, the Surah says: "Whoever works righteousness benefits his own self; whoever misbehaves, it is against his own self; nor is your Lord ever unjust (in the least) to his servants." Surah 41 Fussilat: 46. 7 . The Qur'an also says: Nor your desires, nor those of the People of the Book (Can prevail): whoever works evil, will be requited accordingly. Nor will he find, besides God, any protector or helper. Surah 4 A1 Nisa': 123. (Both) the Jews and the Christians said: `We are the sons of God, and his beloved.' Say: `Why then does He punish you for your mistakes (sins). Nay, you are but humans of those He has created. . . .' Surah 5 A1 Ma'idah: 18. This passage implies the equality of all human beings: God does not have sons above the law, and no group of people have special privileges, not even the peoples of the Book: The Jews say: `The Christians have naught (to stand) upon,' And the Christians say: `The Jews have naught (to stand) upon.' Yet they study the same Book. Like unto their word is what those say who know not; but God will judge between them in their quarrel on the Day of Judgement. Surah 2 Al Baqarah: 1 13. This is the message of all prophets, as the Biblical story of John the Baptist shows: When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them: `Vipers' brood! Who warned to escape from the wrath that is to come? Prove your repentance by the fruit you bear; and do not imagine you can say, `We have Abraham for our father.' I tell you that God can make children for Abraham out of these stones. The axe lies ready at the roots of the trees; every tree that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire. Matt 3:7-10. We read these words elsewhere in the Bible as well: Many, I tell you, will come from the east and west to sit with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob at the banquet in the kingdom of Heaven. But those who were born to the kingdom will be thrown out into the dark, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Man 8:11-12. Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because my teaching is beyond your grasp. Your father is the devil and you choose to carry out your father's desires. John 8: 43-44. [[Category:LAW and RELIGION]] 0 51 123 2009-08-23T10:24:13Z Admin 1 moved [[The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] to [[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] 0 52 126 2009-08-23T10:30:45Z Admin 1 moved [[The challenge of globalization]] to [[7: The challenge of globalization]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[7: The challenge of globalization]] 0 55 136 2009-08-23T10:38:46Z Admin 1 moved [[The present Arabic cultural scene]] to [[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] 0 62 165 2009-12-20T07:00:50Z Admin 1 Created page with ''''ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY AND EUROPE''' '''2nd series of seminars - 2009-2010''' '''"The role of religious actors in peace-building"''' Jawdat Said Mohamed Praise be to God,...' wikitext text/x-wiki '''ISLAM, CHRISTIANITY AND EUROPE''' '''2nd series of seminars - 2009-2010''' '''"The role of religious actors in peace-building"''' Jawdat Said Mohamed Praise be to God, and peace be upon those whom He has chosen, who endorse and promote justice. ===Introduction=== Half a century ago, I wrote a book about the intellectual and his role in times of trouble and crisis. Although my main focus was on issues pertaining mainly to the Islamic world, and despite the fact that it was written a half a century ago—a long time considering the changes that have taken place in a dynamic and ever evolving world despite all that, I still believe that my book can still provide an effective instrument with which to tackle the crisis in the world we live in[1]. I borrowed the book’s title from a Quranic phrase: “Until they change what is in themselves”. My main argument was that a crisis (or any problem) exists in the mind before it manifests itself in reality; the crisis is an intellectual’s problem before it is politician’s problem. The world is in crisis because the intellectual is in crisis, and this applies to all global issues: the environment, global warming, the food crisis, the financial crisis, the coexistence crisis, conflicts and wars. It concluded that all crises have their roots in the mind; all begin with crises of ideas. Such was my main argument then and I still believe in its validity today. A crisis begins with ideas and with intellectuals, whether it deals with what they offer to the people or what they do not offer. Therefore, for the intellectual presents himself as a savior in the times of crisis, is a huge fraud. It would be more appropriate if he presented himself as the culprit[2], and more effective if he adopted a humble attitude in order to review and self-investigate; to revisit all the fundamentals and basics. Unfortunately however, the intellectual’s role is deformed by one of the following causes: - The intellectual is either always lagging behind history unable to understand it, and therefore lacks provisional ability to foresee the future to afford the politician with suitable advice to bring about timely change. We see this born out in the current crisis-generating international path we are all on. - Or an intellectual is silenced by the status quo and lured by personal privileges, turning a blind eye to what is taking place in this world and offering the politicians what they want to hear, not what they need to know and do[3]. This, according to Pierre Bourdieau, is the main reason for our current situation. Today, I feel that it is my duty to explain my point of view as a human being observing this world, in which gains and disbursement are entangled, a world in which one fifth of humanity enjoys wealth, knowledge and advantages, while the other four fifths live in poverty, hunger and corruption. I will try to explain a difficult human dilemma; difficult not because it is not clear, in fact it is very clearas clear as the sun—yet herein lays the ambiguity[4]. People thought, for a long time, that they understood the sun, and that the sun was orbiting the earth. We are still faced with such riddles, very clear yet very vague—more like the issue we are tackling here today. We experience many things openly and secretly;the subject which we are considering is invisibility of this kind. In today’s world, less than 20% of people own 80% of the wealth and the bottom 20% of people has a share of less than 1.4%. This is true on the international level as well as on national and even lower levels. It seems that the current world order is designed to protect these advantages and maintain the status quo. No wonder that people on the top are anxiety-stricken when faced with the prospect of new nations ascending to the upper echelon of power by acquiring sophisticated destructive technologies like nuclear weapons. This anxiety is fueled by the desire to maintain the unjust distribution of power and wealth on all levels. ==Corruption and bloodshed continue to be the problem of all beings; that is the reason for this meeting!== As a human being who has faith in reason and in God’s revelations to humanity, and as someone who reads the Holy Texts and strives to interpret the universe, opens his ears and eyes to what is happening in the world, shifting between scripture and reality, and living the tension between revelation and history, I find an easier path to this research through the Quran. The Quran assigns great value to history and in particular to consequences of events[5]. It stresses that the universe follows the rule of continuous evolution and expansion, and that this evolution is progressive by nature[6]. Moreover, the Quran emphasizes what we can call "the seal of prophethood", or the end of the era of prophecy, when heaven closes its doors, thus allowing people of knowledge and those who call for equity and justice to inherit the role of prophets[7]. Thus, by declaring the end of direct revelations from God, the Quran opens the door to history and to consequences as sources of knowledge and permanent revelation ("Say: ‘Travel through the earth and see how God did originate creation’") [Quran 29:20]. With this declaration, religious activists and intellectuals are now bound to complete the prophets’ task of reform, which I assert is the goal of this conference. The Quran addresses the topics of this conference from three angles, and with three different stories: - The first story is about humans and corruption. - The second addresses human responsibility. - And the third talks about non-violence and reason. It is irrelevant in this context whether those stories are perceived as historical facts or as symbolic myth. What concerns us here is the meaning and the message they convey[8]. 1 - In the first story, angels, in the first moment of creation, protest at the idea of creating humans, on the pretext of their (humans’) tendency to corruption and bloodshed, yet God’s response was (("I know that what you know not.")) [Quran 2:30]. This script depicts the path of human evolution, where the period of wars and corruption, as history tells us, represents only the beginning of this evolutionary path. And even if people today still live by the expectations of the angels, both history and the Quran teach us that man is moving towards God’s prediction, and that God's knowing will unfold. 2 - In the second, Quran narrates the story of Adam and Eve when God commanded them stating: “approach not this tree”. But they transgressed his command, then God confronted them both equally with their sin: ("Did I not forbid you that tree..?), and their answer was: ("Our Lord! We have wronged ourselves) [Quran 7:19-22]. This act of confession, moral accountability and taking responsibility for one's actions is yet another answer to the angels' accusation in the previous story. It again demonstrates humanity’s ability to evolve throughout the course of history. Satan, on the contrary, tried to justify his wrongdoing instead of confessing it, one time by referring to his racial origin ("I am better than he”), and the other was a philosophical reason, when he instead blames God. He says to God: “Because You have tempted me into error” [Quran 7:16]. The Quran, thus, shows us that accusing others and acquitting ourselves will only keep us from resolving our problems. To this day, most people are still more tempted to follow Satan's way and do not incline to the path that Adam and his partner chose, a path backed by the laws of history, the facts of life, and the doctrine of Quran as it states: “Whatever of evil befalls you, is from yourself” [Quran 4:79]. 3 - The third story is about a dialogue between the two sons of Adam. Cain, who failed in his quest, resorted to killing instead of reviewing his own mistake “I will surely kill you,” he said to his brother, while his brother, who became conscious of his own humanity and aware of the blessing of human intellect, refused to resort to violence. He responded “If you do stretch your hand to kill me, I (surely) will not stretch my hand to kill you: for I fear God” [Quran 5:28]. Abel was determined and willing to face the consequences of his stance, and refused to respond. He realized his ability to utilize the power of human reason. This stance of non-violence, as shown above, inaugurates a new era of humans' evolutionary consciousness. Thus, the beginning of human history was not marked by murder nor by crime. On the contrary, it was marked by a unique humanist option fully commensurate with the creation of human consciousness. The first act in history was an act of non-violence, a refusal to kill, to decline, even in self-defense[9]. The same moment has been recorded at numerous times in history. It repeats itself most visibly in Socrates, who accepted death, refused to evade dialogue with the neurological system, and assumed his responsibility as a human. The three stories are similar in how they imply trust in humanity, and in its potential to build and to evolve. In the ability to stand against corruption and to promote justice they stand as precursors to faith. People, and particularly intellectuals, must begin by taking their historical responsibility, and not wait for a savior, for all of us humans are saviors if we follow the rout of God, the doctrine of Adam's son, the path to respect of the human mind, and the belief in reason as a means of resolving disputes, as opposed to resorting to force, violence and killing. ==The Oneness of God is justice== Justice, according to the Quran, is the starting ground for a new theology. The Oneness of God in heaven is not merely a metaphysical matter but rather a social and political matter; it means there are no human gods on earth. For as long as there are those with privileges there will not be peace or sparing of blood. Rather, there will be wretchedness on one side and anxiety and fear on the other side. Wretchedness and suffering on the side of the majority of the inhabitants of this planet; and fear and worry on the side of the privileged minority. This means that all of humanity is trapped in the hell of suffering and fear, for some merely to survive, andfor others to protect their privileges[10]. According to the Quran, the aim of the prophets and messengers is “that people may conduct themselves with equity” [Quran 57:25]. When the Prophet Muhammad addressed the rulers of his time, he sent them the Equality Verse: “Come to a Word of Equality between us: that we shall not worship except God; that we never set up anything besides Him, nor take each other as lords above each other beside God.” [Quran 3:64] This verse is a clear reference to the notion that believing in God is not only a heavenly matter but that it requires belief in equality on earth. This understanding of monotheism and justice makes idealism realistic; it brings the unknown into the realm of the witnessed and brings the divine to the human, and the supernatural into the natural. Thus religion becomes a science, and as science is universal, religion then becomes universal. You are now discussing the role of the religious in areas of conflict. But I would like to say that all of earth is an area of conflict, and the smaller local conflicts and regional wars are only a reflection of the greater corruption that afflicts the United Nations. The privilege the Great Powers want to preserve as a monopoly is the seed of all evils. As long as justice[11] is not presented as the viable choice in resolving these conflicts, as long as we all revere and worship force and as long as we sit mute and in complacency before the veto right in the Security Council which is hindering the onward march of humanity; as long as we maintain these conditions there will neither be peace nor security in this world. We read in the Quran, “nor did we destroy the cities unless its people were unjust.” [Quran 28:59]. I really wonder sometimes if Nazism and Fascism won in the war, could have they created an institution worse than the United Nations? What would have Hitler and Mussolini done besides confer upon themselves, along with Japan, the Veto? The world order in which we live today engenders the law of the jungle. It is an order imposed by force by the winners of the Second World War, and the United Nations is the temple where the idols of power are worshipped and revered. It like fig leaf which instead of hiding the shame of humanity, exposes it. How do we call for human rights and democracy when we at the same time accept a principle that goes directly against human rights, democracy and against humanity itself? Those who do this are like those who live in glass houses, yet persist in throwing stones[12]. The silence over injustice and corruption is political, religious and cultural hypocrisy, but history tells us that those with privilege do not give up their privileges voluntarily. I find clarity in this analysis and it gives me great comfort. How could I not when I am relying on historical facts, the teachings of the prophets and sages and upon the facts of life. How could I not when I am calling for the word of equality where no one is god above another to use the Quranic formulation. The Quran says that all can be forgiven except association with God. What this means is that when some make themselves gods, they set themselves above the law. This is the gravest of sins, the greatest injustice, the moment when all our other devotions and great works become obsolete. This is the source of all historical tragedies. Let those who have ears hear[13]. It has become necessary to renew our world and create new principles. The old paradigms of warfare and the worship of power can only create a sick world in a state of constant crisis like the one we see today. Look at it. It is a world where force has the final word. It is a world overwhelmed with oppression and injustice and run by the Veto Right, a remnant of the Roman legacy without relevance to modernity[14]. All these factors are creating a perpetual, glaring violation of the principles of human rights and hence giving capital and justification to the small dictators of the developing world. It is to the Europeans’ credit that they not only invented means of transporting people and information but also means for transporting power in ways other than assassinations and killings. They institutionalized democracy, a means of transporting and exchanging political power which respects the human mind, giving life to true legitimacy and giving value to people's choice: all things that the Prophet Muhammad practiced in the 7th century. Humanity is the pinnacle of God's creation, and democracy is the pinnacle of humankind's creation. Its essence is when all believe in not resorting to force to resolve conflict; but to persuasion and ballot counts. Democracy is a new-born creature, constantly growing, and hence the concept of Democratization (I mean the spread of democracy in the world) is the challenge that awaits the intellectuals and politicians of the world so that all can live in comfort and safety. You the great powers will stand on nothing until the United Nations becomes a true democratic[15] human assembly with its three separate powers; legislative, executive and judicial. We can then say that legitimacy has come about and that justice and peace may therefore spread. And that the wish of all the prophets and sages has come true. ==History and the Signs== “We shall show them Our portents (signs) on the horizons and within themselves until it will be manifest unto them that it is the Truth. Does not your Lord suffice, since He is Witness over all things?” [Quran 41:53] “Say: Travel in the land, and see the nature of the consequence for the rejecters!” [Quran 6:11). “Then see what was the consequence for the [unjust] wrong-doers!” [Quran 10:39]. The Quran quotes signs/evidence from the horizons, from the physical world around us and also from the human self, from within ourselves as two witnesses of justice that cannot be accused of bias and passion. Anyone who is able to use the signs of the cosmos and in the self to testify to his or her cause has met the quorum of witnessing and can bring forth evidence from the world of the unseen to the world of the seen. The Quran urges us to look at the signs of the horizons (i.e., the outside world) and the signs within ourselves (human mind and behavior). History, according to the Quran, has become a reference for understanding the laws of human behavior. “Laws have passed away before you. Do but travel in the land and see the nature of the consequence for those who denied!” [Quran 3:137]. History then becomes the universe where we understand the laws that govern the social and moral realms. And when the Quran tries to open our eyes to the presence of the external (in the universe and history), it uses a language that cannot be denied except for those who deny the mind. It brings forth one example after another to teach us how to extrapolate from physical and historical phenomena: “Have you not seen what God did to (the tribe of) Aad...” [Quran 89:6-14] “Have you not seen what God did to the owners of the Elephant)) [Quran 105:1], and so on. By pointing to the firm law that is fixed and immutable, which does not change nor alter[16], in ourselves as on the horizon (in the physical universe and in human behavior) [17] the Quran gives us a law-based universe both in the physical and moral realms. Using the same language, we can now say: “Have you not seen what God did to the Soviet Union”, which imploded internally at a time it had what could destroy the planet several times over. We can also say, Have you not seen what God did to Hitler, Napoleon…) or to Afghanistan, Iraq and the Americans. This is not to list tragedies or events, but to demonstrate the principle of History as a source of knowledge. At this point I would like to stop and say: Human evolution has pushed humans against their will toward democracy, which also means rationality, persuasion, and peace. According to this understanding of history, I have come to believe in the death of war. With the first nuclear explosion, I announced the death of war. The nuclear bomb was stillborn. Hence big powers are no longer able to war amongst each other, but are taking advantage of the ignorance of the naïve and invest in their ignorance by selling them weapons[18]. Wars are human sacrifices. Murder has never been a solution to a problem, but a means to exacerbate it as history teaches us. According to this vision, the European Union has ushered the era of the Word of Equality. I consider it a human threshold and one of humanity’s greatest achievements. The European Union stands today as the crown of the human mind. These nations came to embrace and believe in that which is most sacred in religions; they agreed not to take one another for gods, at least among themselves. They liberated themselves from Napoleon and Hitler, and of the culture that made both. This was not a gift from heaven, but grew from pain and suffering and the payment of a heavy price. Napoleon and Hitler could both unite Europe, but only by force and coercion. Today they are united by the human mind, this creature of God which understood lessons of history after trying war of all possible variety; the One-hundred Years War, the Thirty Years War, religious wars, sectarian wars and world wars which exacted hundreds of millions of human sacrifices. This union is not expanding by military conquest or annexation, but by the consent of the parties involved, with a statement of benefits and gains; no one losses and everyone wins. It is a voluntary expansion. Countries are pleading to join, saying accept us and we will abide by your terms. This is an obvious conquest. True that you [the European Union] have not united the world, but you have created the foundations up on which the world can unite. This is nearer to the religion of God, and to His Messengers, and the true nature of humankind than of all people have tried throughout history. It is a new event in history. ==Conclusion== This world has not started nor will end with us. Only ten thousand years ago humans were living in caves, eating the flesh of their own fellow humans. But this period of human history is like the years of early childhood, when a child is unable to clean himself, something that does not undermine the great potential of this young creature. It would be shameful if one does not learn when they have reached adulthood. It is a great shame on the intellectuals that people are still killing one another. Our presence in this world is not in vain, useless or a game. Human happiness and fulfillment come from service to a just cause. And the greatest cause is to bring an end to corruption and bloodshed. The time of the prophets has ended and the responsibility has been transferred to the people of knowledge to bring people out of darkness and into light, from injustice to justice, from slavery to freedom, and from corruption and bloodshed to “I know what you do not know.” [Quran 2:30]! The closest people to God are those who provide services to other human beings, their brothers and sisters. Prophets came to have people compete in doing good. Let us compete in making world peace, and making a global community where everyone is equal before the law for in so doing we will have fulfilled the will of God and the wish of prophets. May there be Glory for God high above, love for people and peace on Earth. May peace, mercy and abundance be upon you. Jawdat Said Mohamed Syria - Beer Ajam ==references== 1 Because the same laws apply to all people equally. Quran's reply to those who thought they were special compared to others was:((.. you are but human beings, of those He has created)) [Quran 5:18]. 2 "..if the light within you has turned into darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matt 6:23. 3 Santiago Ginovic - documents of the Venice convention March 17, 1986. 4 I often bring this example. The idea of the Sun and Earth exchanging positions as centers represents a clear example of people's likelihood to fall in error even with such clear and simple reality. People were willing to die for this misperception, and send others to death as well. If the sun which is usually an example of clarity has now become a symbol of misperception, and if all people can be mistaken to this degree, and for thousands of years, then what are the ideas and perceptions that we can consider, with absolute certainty, correct to a degree that we are willing to judge people and send them to death for? 5 Other verses that refer to this: ((Say: "Travel through the earth and see what was the end of those who rejected Truth.")) [Quran 5:11], ((Soon will We show them Our signs in the (furthest) regions (of the earth), and in their own souls until it becomes manifest to them that this is the Truth. Is it not enough that thy Lord doth witness all things? ))[Quran 41:53], ((..then see what was the end of those who indulged in - sin and crime!)) [Quran 7:84], and ((Then see what was the consequence for the wrong-doers!)) [Quran 10:39].--And in the Bible: "You will recognize them by their fruit. Can grapes be picked from briars, or figs &om thistles..." Matt 7:16-17.(SVD 6 ((..He multiplieth in creation what He will. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things.)) [Quran 35,1], ((And (He has created) horses, mules, and donkeys, for you to ride and use for show; and He has created (other) things of what ye have no knowledge.)) [Quran 16:8]. 7 Since the main objective of the message of the prophets was that people enjoin justice, according to the Quran verse: ((Indeed We have sent Our Messengers with clear proofs, and revealed with them the Scripture and the Balance (justice) that mankind may keep up justice.)) [Quran, 57:25], prophets became subject to abuse and physical liquidation by those who enjoy privileges. This is why God leveled intellectuals who indorse and promote justice with the prophets ((As to those who deny the signs of God, and in defiance of right, slay the prophets, and slay those calling humankind to justice, announce to them a grievous penalty)) [Quran, 3:21],((There is no god but He: that is the witness of Allah His angels and those endued with knowledge, standing firm on justice. There is no god but He, the Exalted in Power, the Wise.)) [Quran, 3:18].Here we also find that the testimony to the Oneness of God came form people of knowledge, aside from prophets. 8 When I quote Quran, my intention is not to impose my belief on the reader. The credibility of any statement is not dependent on the person who said it, but on how this statement reflects the reality. I am surprised by the reluctance of modern thinkers to quote Quran and other scriptures. Shouldn’t the same rules that are valid with ordinary human ideas, apply to those scriptures so that they can be quoted similarly? 9 It should be noted here that Quran ordered Muslims to refrain from self-defense ((Withhold your hands (from fighting), establish worship)) [Quran, 4:77] and invited them to practice a unique act of disobedience ((Nay! (O Muhammad)! Do not obey him. Fall prostrate and draw near to Allah)) [Quran, 96:19]. Prophet Muhammad also ordered them to follow the doctrine of the first son of Adam in times of wars, conflicts and loss legitimacy. He said “Be like the son of Adam. If you fear the glittering of the sword, throw your garment over your face so that [the aggressor] carries the onus of your sin as well as his.”. He wanted first to build a legitimate society, and legitimacy cannot be built with violence and coercion. Individuals in societies where the rule of law prevail are protected by their societies and by their institutions. A society where every individual protects himself is where the laws of jungle prevail. Similarly, Bin Laden’s position was based on the principles of the French revolution, that promote man’s so called right to resist the occupation in every means possible, and was not based on the legacy of the prophets and their call for - reform and change. (kindly refer to the author’s books: “Be like Adam's [first] son”, and “law and religion”). 10 Many passages In the Bible imply that knowledge and justice produce comfort and peace of mind: (19My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver. 20I walk in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice) [Proverbs 8:19-20] (..when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.) [Proverbs 3:24]. 11 "There is no true peace without fairness, truth, justice and solidarity," from the message of Pope John Paul II for the celebration of the world day of peace - January 1st, 2000. 12 (1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye, and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye," Matt 7, international version. 13 Matt 11, 15 14 The sight of the U.S. soldier Linda England with the dog and a the Iraqi prisoner in Abu Ghraib's prison in Iraq reminds us of the time of Roman gladiators. 15 In the Quran: "O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! You have nothing (as regards guidance) till you act according to the (Torah), the Injeel (Gospel), and what has (now) been sent down to you from your Lord (the Quran)," [Quran 5:68]. 16 ((The laws of those who have passed and you will not find an alteration to God’s laws)) [Quran 33:62]. 17 Considering time limitation I am not discussing this matter in detail, however it forms a complete methodology in Quran. 18 I believe that the human mind is capable of creating a trade among humans that serves all that is not death trade. Some win by spilling blood but has disastrous consequences for all; results in a state of fear, worry and horror that spreads over the world as it is in the war on terrorism. 0 49 115 2009-08-23T10:02:16Z Admin 1 moved [[Two sources of knowledge]] to [[4: Two sources of knowledge]] wikitext text/x-wiki #REDIRECT [[4: Two sources of knowledge]] 6 102 212 2013-12-04T21:04:51Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki 6 111 227 2021-04-19T12:42:38Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 6 109 224 2021-04-19T11:01:03Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709 6 106 219 2020-11-18T10:35:05Z Admin 1 FOREWORD BY JAWDAT SAID TO: NO, JURY … IT IS ALLAH, NOT THE KING PLEADING OF MAULANA MUHAMMAD ALI IN THE KARACHI LAW-COURT, 1921, BEFORE THE BRITISH-INDIAN JUDICIAL PANEL TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY: DR. ABDULLATIF ALKHAIAT wikitext text/x-wiki FOREWORD BY JAWDAT SAID TO: NO, JURY … IT IS ALLAH, NOT THE KING PLEADING OF MAULANA MUHAMMAD ALI IN THE KARACHI LAW-COURT, 1921, BEFORE THE BRITISH-INDIAN JUDICIAL PANEL TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY: DR. ABDULLATIF ALKHAIAT 8d52eb612116a17060e0ab322bc589ab2364bc06 6 105 218 2020-11-18T10:30:04Z Admin 1 JAWDAT SAID ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS POSED BY: IBRAHIM MAHMOUD TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY: DR. ABDULLATIF ALKHAIAT wikitext text/x-wiki JAWDAT SAID ANSWERS TO: FOURTEEN QUESTIONS POSED BY: IBRAHIM MAHMOUD TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY: DR. 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margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "[[Current Islamic Issues]]"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |[[12: Interpretation of the holy texts]] |- |*[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/images/c/c0/Current_Islamic_Issues.doc '''Download the full Interview'''] |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 152 149 2009-08-23T11:16:20Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "[[Current Islamic Issues]]"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |[[12: Interpretation of the holy texts]] |- |*'''[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc Download the full Interview]''' |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 149 144 2009-08-23T11:04:03Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "Current Islamic Issues"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |[[12: Interpretation of the holy texts]] |- |*'''[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc Download the full Interview]''' |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 144 143 2009-08-23T10:56:35Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "Current Islamic Issues"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |*'''[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc Download the full Interview]''' |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 143 142 2009-08-23T10:55:44Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "Current Islamic Issues"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |'''[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc Download the full Interview]''' |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 142 141 2009-08-23T10:55:25Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "Current Islamic Issues"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |'''[http://www.jawdatsaid.net/index.php?title=%D8%B5%D9%88%D8%B1%D8%A9:Current_Islamic_Issues.doc|Download the full Interview]''' |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 141 116 2009-08-23T10:47:27Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; margin: 2 2em 2em 2; text-align:left; border: 1px solid #060; font-size:12px" |text-align:center; |'''Interview with "Current Islamic Issues"'''<br /> |- |[[1: The major stages in the intellectual progress]] |- |[[3: The main features Jawdat's project]] |- |[[4: Two sources of knowledge]] |- |[[5: Are you advocating the discarding of jihad]] |- |[[6: The basic tenets of Iqbal's project]] |- |[[7: The challenge of globalization]] |- |[[8: Patriarchal-glorification-and-infallibility]] |- |[[9: Is the Islamic mind in a crisis?]] |- |[[10: The present Arabic cultural scene]] |- |[[11: Muhammad Arkoun's attitude]] |- |Download the full Interview |} <noinclude>[[Category:Templates]]</noinclude> 116 47 2009-08-23T10:15:28Z Admin 1 wikitext text/x-wiki {| class="toccolours" id="قضايا إسلامية معاصرة" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="290px" style="float: right; 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